With a handful of injuries and an offensive line in their fourth shuffle of this young season, the Steelers (3-2) came out and punched the Titans (3-2) in the mouth as they ran all over the Titan defense. The Steelers, on the heels of their second and third string running backs put up 174 yards rushing while Big Ben added five touchdown passes and the defense kept Hasselbeck and Johnson in check all day long.
I have to start by talking about the offensive line. Wow. What a huge difference one player makes. The Steelers brought back Max Starks, who shouldn't have been cut in the first place, and he solidified the left side of the line. Max and the rest of the line kept the Titans defense in check all evening and really looked great only giving up one sack. Pouncey left the game for a short while to deal with his knee and Gilbert left after he re-injured his shoulder; both of them will hopefully be good to go against the Jaguars Sunday.
I was so happy about the running game against he Titans. The Steelers did not have Rashard Mendenhall, who I don't feel should be the starting back anyway, and the team seemed to take a step towards getting back to their old ways. Isaac Redman carried the ball 12 times for 49 yards while Jonathan Dwyer carried 11 times for 107 yards, including a 76 yard scramble early in the game. Redman seemed to gains yards even if there were none to be had and Dwyer controlled the clock in the third and fourth quarter to help the Steelers win. I am not going to proclaim that the Steelers run game is back. What I will say is that this is the right step to getting it back. The Steelers will play Jacksonville and Arizona the next two weeks and they can build towards their running attack even more in those games.
Big Ben looked solid, and since he was on his feet all day we shouldn't be shocked. Ben tied his career high with five touchdown passes along with 228 yards passing. There was a stupid pick at the end of the half as the Steelers tried to do too much even though they had a 21 to 3 lead. The pick was Ben's tenth turnover of the season, which is the most in the NFL. The pick didn't amount to anything and overall this game leaves me optimistic about the coming weeks.
Now the defense, oh, our beloved Steel Curtain defense. Again, I will not say that they are back, but they looked amazing. LaMarr Woodley doubled his season sack total, adding one and a half more; he also picked off a batted Hasselbeck pass for the Steelers first INT of the season. Ziggy Hood added a half sack and first round draft pick Cameron Heyward had his first career sack and forced fumble late in the game. Everyone got in on the action on defense with big plays; Hoke controlled the line and kept Chris Johnson off his game as the team gave up only 66 yards rushing, the linebackers tackled well and the secondary kept the Titan receivers in check.
The Steelers really dipped into the playbook running fake punts and a few end around runs with the receivers. Antonio Brown really looked great returning the ball as well as he returned two kicks for 41 yards and kept Big Ben and the rest of the offense on short fields. It was good to see Ben passing the ball around as seven different receivers caught Big Ben passes with four of them catching touchdowns, Wallace, Johnson, Miller and Ward with two.
On a final important note, Hines was smiling again. So, no worries everything seems to be going back to normal.
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