Two pre-season games are complete for the Pittsburgh Steelers that have resulted in a victory over the Philadelphia Eagles and a loss to the Buffalo Bills last night. In losing to the Bills 24-21, there were signals that should get us excited, mostly on offense. Once again, Ben Roethlisberger led a very sharp offense, driving downfield on eight plays beginning at their own 23-yard line and getting to the Bills’ 33-yard line before Big Ben tried to get a pass to Hines Ward that was picked off by Donte Witner but tipped in the air before he made the interception. What worries me now is how the defense played following the turnover. Trent Edwards began on his own 33-yard line and marched his offense on a 10-play scoring drive that resulted in a Robert Royal seven-yard strike. My problem with that drive and Buffalo’s next drive (which also resulted in a touchdown) is that the defense could not find a way to stop Edwards and his offense. Edwards combined a rushing attack led by Marshawn Lynch with a “dink and dunk” offense and once again as we have seen in the past, there was little quarterback pressure and loose coverage by the secondary. In those two touchdown resulting series were plays like a 23-yard pass completion; a Lynch receptions for eight yards; a Lynch run for another seven; Lynch for 11 yards and a first down; Lee Evans for nine yards resulting in another first down; Lynch for another 10 on the ground; a Trent Edwards keeper for 22 yards; a 15-yard completion; and Fred Jackson consecutive rushes for five, six, and five yards. So you see, a mish-mash of plays as Edwards mixed it up well and this all against our FIRST-TEAM defense. Worried? I know I am.
Now, keep in mind, some teams in the pre-season hold back in these games that don’t count so as to not show future opponents too much of what to expect when the games do count in the standings. Could that be the case here? That remains to be seen. How about the Byron Leftwich debut in Black and Gold? Not too bad. He did fumble the ball once but retained possession. In relieving Ben Roethlisberger, #4 threw the ball eleven times completing five for 41 yards. He didn’t throw a pick but also didn’t move the offense that well. However, this was only his first experience running our offense.
“I got my feet wet,” said Leftwich, who made his first on-field appearance since losing the starting job in Atlanta to Joey Harrington following a 31-7 loss to Tampa Bay on Nov. 18. “As comfortable as you can feel with two days (of practice), I think some good things happened, though.”
Coach Mike Tomlin acknowledged he put Leftwich in a tough situation this week.
“I think it was a nice start for him. We’ll see where it goes,” Tomlin said.
Dennis Dixon on the other hand brought the Steelers back to within a field goal of winning. Before leaving the game, Roethlisberger did lead his team to a touchdown, a spectacular one at that, when Santonio Holmes broke free and hauled in a 40-yard bomb for a score. A sign of things to come? Let’s hope. The Bills jumped ahead 17-7 on a field goal, but Rashard Mendenhall got it back to a three point deficit with a six-yard run. Leodis Mckelvin put Buffalo ahead by 10 again with a 95-yard kickoff return for a score (Yoi! Special teams failure again!), but Dennis Dixon romped 47-yards for the final score of the game. Dixon led all rushers for the Steelers because of that one run, ending up with 54 yards rushing. The other top rookie Mendenhall finished the night with 11 carries but only 30 yards which is a 2.7 per carry average. NOT GOOD. Willie Parker did not fair much better with 14 yards on five carries. Gary Russell also carried three times and managed only 10 yards.
A slew of Steelers receivers caught the ball on Thrusday night with Dallas Baker getting the most yards, 57 total on three carries. Santonio had another 53 yards on just two catches, powered by that 40-yard bomb. Hines Ward had a good night with three grabs for 48 yards; Nate Washington two for 30; Matt Spaeth, two for 23; Willie Reid three for 21; and Limas Sweed two for just nine yards. Lawrence Timmons continues to impress making seven tackles on the night to lead all defenders including a sack. James Harrison and Aaron Smith also added a single sack each.
As for the special teams, Willie Reid returned three kickoffs for a 20.3 average, while Carey Davis and Mewelde Moore each returned one for 25 and 17 yards respetively. Four players shared punt returning duties, Eddie Drummond, Travis Williams, Willie Reid, and Mewelde Moore. None of them got further than seven yards and the fact that Jeremy Bloom did not get a return spells trouble for his chances of making the team. Thus far it is looking like our return teams won’t be much better than they were in the past. In booting the ball, newcomer Mitch Berger got the bulk of the work averaging 47.5 yards per punt on four attempts. Paul Ernster in his only punt knocked the ball downfield 45 yards for a touchback. Three out of four of Berger’s punts went inside Buffalo’s 20-yard line including one touchback. His long was 49 yards.
If the defense doesn’t tighten up, we are looking at some shootouts this year. Last night, the Steelers offense finished with 338 total yards to Buffalo’s 263. 230 of those were through the air. On fourth downs, the Steelers converted two out two attempts. So while the offense was very sharp from the first unit, the defense appears to need more work. James Harrison agrees:
“Yeah, I'm concerned. We got the ball drove down our throats three of the four times we were in there, so hell yeah I'm concerned.”
Mike Tomlin faced the media following the game and gave the following commentary:
“We fell short essentially in all three phases. We have to get our regular season legs under us pretty quickly and become a better tackling team. Nothing is broken schematically. Guys are where they are supposed to be. We don’t have enough guys making sure tackles. Our intent was to play three series. I thought we moved the football. We stalled ourselves in drives. You get penalties on third down and one it’s not going to help you.”
Ben Roethlisberger gave an alternate explanation:
“We killed ourselves with penalties, and we can't let that happen. If you look at this game, we started really bad.”
For the record, Pittsburgh got flagged only five times. One other defender also explained the night:
Larry Foote: “We weren't the more physical team and normally that doesn't happen. We just have to check ourselves.”
