The Steelers (4-2) used a solid first half and productive running game to hand the Jaguars (1-5) their fifth straight loss of the season. The Steelers over powered the Jags as they went into half up 17-3 on Rashard Mendenhall and Mike Wallace's first half touchdowns. The Steelers used defense to control the Jags comeback in the second half to defeat them 17-13.
Big Ben was 11 of 15 for 181 yards with no turnovers or sacks in the first half while Rashard must have been feeling the pressure from Isaac Redman and Jonathan Dwyer as he put up 113 yards in the first half.
The defense was solid in the first half only allowing 68 yards and a 2.4 yard per play average to the struggling Jaguars. They sacked Gabbert three times in the first half and didn't allow the Jags to get going on offense while the offense put the Steelers up big.
The second half didn't offer any offense as the Steelers seemed prepared to just sit on their lead and wait to show off the rest of the playbook. The offense didn't muster a single point and were held under a 100 yards in the second half after scoring 17 and putting up 315 yards in the first half. Ben was sacked three times in the second half, mostly due to holding onto the ball way too long. He was 1 of 8 for 19 yards in the second half giving him 200 total yards and a touchdown for the game. The big thing was that Ben did not turn the ball over this game, his first game without a turnover this season.
The running game looked great as Rashard Mendenhall ran for 146 yards on 23 carries, including a career long 68 yard scamper in the first half. Isaac Redman and Jonathan Dwyer got into the action as well combining for 6 carries and 30 yards. As a team the Steelers ran for 185 yards averaging 5.8 yards per carry and picking up six of the teams 15 first downs on the ground.
The offensive line held up the Jaguars defense well until the final quarter as Ben seemed to hold the ball too long to make plays happen. Now, don't start that "it was the Jaguars" argument because coming into this game they were 8th in total defense, so the defense is not the weak part of the Jags. Even with Legursky going down, I am not worried as I think they will continue to get better before their rematch with the Ravens.
The defense played well in both halves as they sacked Gabbert five times and held him to 76 yards passing and only allowed him to convert 26% of their third down attempts. The biggest issue once again is the running game as they allowed 133 yards, 96 of those to Jones-Drew. The Steelers allowed 62 yards per game all of last season; through six games this season they are allowing 112 per game. Something has got to give with the run defense and we can only hope that they improve that as the season moves on.
The Steelers injuries piled up in this contest as well. Guard Doug Legursky came out of the game early with a dislocated toe, Troy Polamalu is suffering from concussion like symptoms and Chris Hoke is suffering from a stinger. Troy will go through mandatory concussion test this week, so it is way to early to talk about next week. As for the players who were already out with injuries, we could see a few of them back next week.
On a side note, Hines Ward caught a 19 yard pass from Ben in the first half that gave him 11,911 yards for his career, moving him ahead of Hall of Famer Micheal Irvin. Going into next week Hines will be working towards a few career milestones as he needs 23 catches for 1,000 and 61 yards for 12,000.
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