SCB Steelers Wrap-Up; Steelers Beat the Texans 30-23

By Steel Dad

Let’s not put too much lipstick on the pig here because if you take away the three minute barrage by the Steelers to end the first half, they didn’t play all that well. The end didn’t come until the Michael Palmer fell on the Texans’ on-sides kick but finally the Steelers had their win.

-Credit Dick LeBeau who made his best in-game adjustments of the season after getting gashed in the first half. He brought some more heat and the team responded with some turnovers.

-The win is beyond crucial with an extremely hot Indianapolis team coming to town and then Baltimore the following week.

-The fumbles by Ben Roethlisberger have to stop. I appreciate his willingness to keep plays alive but sometimes you just have to take care of the ball and take the loss.

-When you’re struggling in the Red Zone, you do whatever it takes. The Steelers did that by getting Antonio Brown on an end around-reverse pass to Lance Moore. I really wasn’t crazy about the play-call but it worked.

-The Steelers then used an excellent piece of play-design to find Le’Veon Bell in the end zone where Ben Roethlisberger hit him with a strike.

-I still have concerns as to whether Roethlisberger will survive this season. The offensive line just isn’t getting it down consistently in pass protection.

-The late surge in the second quarter did not mask a pretty brutal first half by the Steelers.

READ MORE:  http://www.steelcityblitz.com/2014/10/21/scb-steelers-wrap-3/

Great write up SCB!

I will say this, I've seen and heard comments on the 73 seconds that produced 3 touchdowns that insinuate it to being lucky for the Steelers and a hint in those comments they would have lost the game if it weren't for those few plays in that stretch. Let's just take a moment to review a few things about those plays:

• It shouldn’t really matter how much time passed during the scoring span. The game is still 60 minutes long and the winner is the team that scores the most points. If those three touchdowns were spread across several quarters, does that make this win any better? Wouldn’t you question all the other drives that were not effective regardless of the scoring time-span?
  
  
• I recently made a comment in a post that great players make great plays (game changing plays). In the Monday night game, we saw Le’Veon Bell take a short pass for a long run to set up a score. Jason Worilds played up to his potential instead of below that potential. He forced a turnover deep in the Texan territory. Timmons found himself in the right spot on a pass play to cause a deflection that Keisel caught. All of these plays helped set up scoring during that brief time-span. But they are all examples of players getting themselves in the right spot and making game changing plays. Stretch those plays over several quarters and the Steelers still win.
  
  
• For the first time all year, we saw splash plays and I’m excited that it came from several players. Seems Steelers Nation discounted the McCain pick-six in Jacksonville because it was against Jacksonville and a rookie QB. Fair enough. I’m not willing to discount the plays made Monday night just because of the short time-span. Although Houston is not a world beating team, they didn’t hand the Steelers the ball. Foster fumbles at a lower rate than our beloved Jerome Bettis. Pittsburgh had more to do with those turnovers that set-up quick scores than anything else.
  

I'm not making the case that this one game will change the course of the entire season. It could and only time will tell. But what I am stating is that for the first time this season we saw several players make game changing plays and that's exciting ... and something they can build off of.