Yet again, we've had an other fourth-quarter semi-debacle. It looked like a "Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my!" when the Steelers failed to kill the clock late in the game and gave the ball back to Daunte Culpepper. He drove the team 82 yards and tossed an easy touchdown that brought the game 28-20. All they needed now was another touchdown and a 2-pointer to tie the game. And by the way the defense was playing their prevent zone scheme, I didn't feel too good about holding the Lions back for a potential upset.
But then...
SACKS: When we needed it most, the defense came out of the gates in the final drive of the game and dragged Culpepper to the ground. Three sacks in a row left the Lions with a Hail-Mary heave to the end zone that was batted down by Ike Taylor. As I had predicted, this would be the game that the Steelers would start racking up some sacks. James Harrison came to life once again with 3 of his own and now has 6 for the season after back-to-back sack games. What was more beautiful, however, is that everybody got a piece of the quarterback. Including William Gay, who I thought finally showed some good aggressiveness yesterday and covered better than ever. In all, the Steelers racked up 7 sacks against the Lions, almost doubling their total for the season (15).
SANTONIO HOLMES: This guy has become one tough, physical wide receiver. He's not a big guy at 5-11, 192 lbs., but on the first pass he caught, he stuck his arm out and pushed down the cornerback defending him to the ground and towed his way for a first down. Then another catch later on, he made contact with several defenders and busted out for more yards after breaking several tackles. You could tell that the Hines Ward philosophy of the game is having a big influence on Holmes. He was doing it all, and even held a beautiful block when Fright Night busted a 27-yard run. And when Mike Wallace dropped that deep ball, Holmes grabbed his attention on the sideline and was joking around with him to let him know to get his head back in the game.
FRIGHT NIGHT: He had 60 yards in the first half, and he would have ended with 100+ if it hadn't been for poor play calling in the second half. The team tried to go for it all a couple of times when they could have ground out the clock with the running game. Mendy finished with 77 yards, but a whopping 5.1 average. He made good yardage after contact and is running with really good confidence.
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: He completed 76.6 percent of his passes in this game, and he still leads all quarterbacks with a 73.8 completion percentage. He is becoming extremely accurate and deadly as a quarterback. Not only that, but he's moved up to second place in passing leaders in the NFL with a total of 1,470 yards passing, behind Payton Manning. His interception returned for a touchdown in this game was ugly, but he laughed it off and drove the team 52 yards with a touchdown on the very next series. He finished the game with 123.9 passer rating.
MIKE WALLACE: After pulling a Limas Sweed and dropping a beautiful deep pass that would have been a sure touchdown, Roethlisberger went back to him on a 47-yard touchdown lob. This one was actually more difficult than the first, as Wallace went down to one knee and a defender came by and almost batted the ball away. It was a terrible play by the defender who didn't even look back for the ball, and a great play by Wallace for not getting distracted.
Some thoughts on the Bengals... I actually wanted the Bengals to win over the Ravens yesterday even though we already lost a game in Cincinnati. The Bengals are not as good as everybody is making them out to be. Yes they could be 5-0 if it weren't for a freak play against the Broncos, but we dominated the Bengals when we played and fell apart in the fourth quarter to give them the win. The Bengals still have to play against the Vikings, Bears, Jets and Chargers, plus rematch games against us and the Ravens. They will not lead the division by the time this is over. They've racked up a very nice start, but the last time they won four in a row was in 2006... that year they finished 8-8 and missed the playoffs.
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