After a dull, listless, boring here we go again first three quarters where the Steelers appeared to lose to another terrible 2-7 team, they came alive and reversed the game and probably their entire season with a 27-24 come from behind victory over the Tennessee Titans.
The win moved the Steelers, 7-4, into second place behind the Cincinnati Bengals, 5-3-1 going into their bye week, one game ahead of the Cleveland Browns and the Baltimore Ravens both at 6-4.
After playing two great games against the Indianapolis Colts and the Baltimore Ravens the Steelers stunk up the place against the lowly New York Jets, 3-8 with turnovers being the deciding factors in the game. Well, turnovers almost were the key again until Ben Roethlisberger got his game together and Todd Haley decided to test one of the worst run defenses in the NFL by running Le’Veon Bell again, and again, and again. Bell finished the game with 204 yards on 33 carries, the third best in Steelers history.
Even though Ben was sacked several times by a defense which was a carbon copy of the Steelers, and threw an interception in the end zone, the offensive line performed superbly in opening holes for Bell and actually protecting Ben in the second half, especially the fourth quarter.
Tennessee is loaded with young players trying to find their place in the league and is gradually molding themselves into a good team. So they tried everything because they had nothing to lose. Such as the blitzing on almost every play which probably led to their downfall. Blitzing takes a lot out of players because they are running every play. So when the Steelers started running the ball the Titans had no gas in their tanks.
Now going into their bye week the Steelers coaching staff still must fix the problem they are still experiencing, the in ability to score in the red zone, even though scores by Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell did look mighty nice.
Brown retained his spot at the top of the NFL in receptions 88 and receiving yards 1161. The 204 yards gave Bell 951 yards on 195 carries for the season and 1435 total yards.
In other weekend games in the AFC North, the Cincinnati Bengals finally put a complete game together in defeating the New Orleans Saints 27-10, while the Houston Texans ran all over the Cleveland Browns 23-7 causing a log jam in the conference.
This weekend the Bengals will face the Texans (5-5), the Browns play the Atlanta Falcons (4-6), and the Baltimore Ravens will face the Saints (4-6).
Predictions: Ravens over the Saints, the Browns over the Falcons, and the Bengals over the Texans.
The Steelers should come off their bye week in almost a four-way tie in the tough AFC North. The Steelers have the toughest schedule for the remainder of the season as they face the Saints, the Bengals, the Falcons, the Kansas City Chiefs (7-3), and close against the Bengals.
One big thing the bye week will help, is that it gives the injured players, especially on defense time to heal. Ike Taylor, Troy Polamalu, Jarvis Jones and Ryan Shazier are critical to the team’s success and they all have been on the sidelines. But that being said, which Steelers team will show up after the bye week is still anybody’s guess?
