Beer We Go Steelers

The Steelers outplayed the Chiefs and booked their trip to the postseason, for the first time in two seasons! It was a classic Steelers game of yesterday, with efficient QB play, steady if not spectacular offense and bone crushing hard hitting defense. Six sacks a huge stop on fourth down, a big turnover, big plays in the red zone it was old times for the defense.

Do to time restraints I won’t have the game report this week.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/recap?gameId=400554434

BEER WE GO STEELERS, BEER WE GO!!!

My “GAME BEER” goes to: I am going with Mike Tomlin. The whispers were rampant this season that the Steelers have lost their edge and are no longer an exceptional franchise. Well guess what, for the fifth time in eight years he has double digit wins and despite some personnel limitations he has the Steelers set to be the most feared team in the league, no one wants to see the Steelers in the playoffs. This was his best coaching job so far! He also will finish with a better record then Coach Cowher after eight seasons. Also considered: Silverback, who came off the bench and played great, Cam Heyward and Antonio Brown (Of course)

Where I watched the game: At the house, watched with my little guys again, Dante and Little Miss Tailgate. KGB also watched in between running around. My beer of choice was Guinness Kilkenny, Cream Ale, it was great. I cooked Sausage and Peppers with Peppers I cured myself.

My Stat of the week: One sack for the Chiefs defense, unless something horribly goes wrong next week, this will mark the fewest times Ben Roethlisberger has been sacked in his career while playing at least 15 games. That is a testament to Todd Haley and the play of the offensive line.

My thoughts on Next Week: The Steelers play a tough Bengals team for supremacy for the AFC North. The game is now a night game and prime time. My Cousins are going to the game with the Janick. Look for a tight and tough game!

The Steelers outlasted the Falcons cruising to victory in Atlanta. The game was reminiscent of days past where the Steelers simply just outplayed the Falcons on all sides of the ball. It was a tight well put together game plan and the Steelers did a good job executing it.

BEER WE GO is running out of adjectives to describe Antonio Brown. So I will just let the numbers speak for themselves, 10 catches for 123 yards and he broke Hines Ward’s single season record for catches. A toe tapping 28 yarder was the highlight of a great day and setup a Le’Veon Bell Touchdown!

The offense moved the ball virtually at will. Ben Roethlisberger didn’t throw a touchdown but he was sharp and made every play that he needed including converting three big third downs in the fourth quarter, including to the back breaking completion to Heath Miller. Roethlisberger finished with 360 yards passing and no picks.

The Linebackers played a complete and solid game, despite not having a recorded sack. Sean Spence is rounding into form and was all over the field. Vince Williams played well and has helped fixed the leaky run defense. Lawrence Timmons continues to be the anchor for the defense. The pass rush was not flashy but effective. Jason Worilds had a sack but it was negated by over officiating.

The secondary is still the weak link in the chain. Matt Ryan torched the Steelers secondary, they gave up 310 yards and two touchdowns. There were sign of life however, Mike Mitchell played his best game as a Steeler and William Gay had his third pick six of the season! Antwon Blake and Brice McCain both hung tough but were over matched several times.

The Steelers coaching put together a great game plan. “We’re not a perfect group by any stretch,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said, “but we’re a group that will fight to the end together.”

BEER WE GO STEELERS, BEER WE GO!!!

My “GAME BEER” goes to: I am going with William Gay. He stepped in front of a pass for Harry Douglas and returned the interception 52 yards for a touchdown, his third scoring return this season. Also Considered: Antonio Brown, who caught 10 passes and I honestly feel like we need to send him a case of beer.

Where I watched the game: At the house, watched with my little guys, Dante and Little Miss Tailgate. KGB watched most of the game and helped with the cooking, I cooked Spaghetti and homemade Meatballs. My beer of choice was Guinness Generous Ale, the Holiday Ale, freaking awesome.

My Stat of the week: Antonio Brown had 10 receptions for 123 yards, also setting a franchise record for catches in a season: 115, eclipsing the 112 by Hines Ward in 2002. ( I was at the game when Ward broke the record.) Le’Veon Bell also now holds the Steelers single season record for Yards from Scrimmage breaking Barry Fosters’ record!

My thoughts on Next Week: The Steelers play a tough Chiefs team. The Steelers need to keep tighten up the defense and they can pull this thing together.

The Steelers dropped 25 fourth quarter points on the Bengals and kept their division hopes alive!  It was a back and forth battle for the first 3-quarters but in the end the Steelers made the big plays.

It all starts and begins with Ben Roethlisberger and Sunday the Steelers lived by that. When Ben struggled the Steelers offense struggled, but he pulled it together and led an on the road fourth quarter comeback. Which included a huge 96 yard Touchdown Pass to Martavis Bryant. (BTW my son Dante called the play before it happened) On the day Ben finished with 350 yards and three touchdowns.

If the offense starts with Ben, Le’Veon Bell is the one who makes it go! He had a monster day and was nearly unstoppable in the second half. He racked up a mind boggling 110 yards in the fourth quarter behind a great pulling scheme with Dave DeCastro and Heath Miller leading the way.  The Steelers chewed up the Bengals on the ground and demolished their front seven. Miller also caught a Touchdown!

As great as Bell and Ben were, Antonio Brown is just ridiculous and could be the best player on the Steelers. He makes tough catches, he gets open and is clearly the Steelers go to guy. He racked up another nine catches for the fifth time in seven games. He had well over 100 yards and made the plays that were needed. The WRs had a great day highlighted by Bryant’s bomb and nice contributions by Lance Moore and Markus Wheaton.

The down side is the secondary is clearly the weak link as AJ Green torched the Steelers secondary. Mike Mitchell and Ike Taylor had awful performances as did Troy Polamalu who was caught out of position several times on both the run and on deep passes. Once given the lead the defensive backs held on and played much better.

The Steelers front seven played well and it was a nice showing for Steelhead Heyward and Stephon Tuitt in his first start. Tuitt laid out Andy Dalton and sent him to the bench for a few series. Arthur Moats had the turning point in the game recovering a Dalton fumble. The Steelers also limited the run significantly. This is where stats need help to tell the Story on a Read Option play Andy Dalton scurried for 20 yards to take the lead, Lawrence Timmons and Troy were caught out of position. If you take that play out the Steelers held the Bengals in check and when they went to the Read Option again Arthur Moats was ready for it and forced the turnover.

With all that said, the day belonged to the Coaches who had the Steelers fired up and ready to play. If the Jets and Bucs game were letdowns, this was a must win and the Steelers had the right game plan to deliver on it.

BEER WE GO STEELERS BEER WE GO

My “GAME BEER” goes to: I am going with Le’Veon Bell who had a big day with 185 yards on the ground and 50 catches in the air. Also Considered: Antonio Brown, who caught nine passes, Big Ben who threw for 350 yards and Arthur Moats who had the game changing fumble recovery.

Where I watched the game: At the house, in between decorating! Watched with my little guys, Luc, Dante and Little Miss Tailgate. They were laughing at me because I kept saying “I love that play” when the Steelers were pulling Heath and DeCastro. KGB was in and out and cooked an awesome dinner, Chicken Bruschetta. My beer of choice was Guinness Blonde to start and left over IC Light from last weeks tailgate.

My Stat of the week: 110 yards in the fourth quarter for Le’Veon Bell. Bell now has 200 yards from scrimmage for the third game in a row, joining one other player in NFL history, some guy named Walter Payton! When you are mentioned in the same breath as Walter Payton and it is only you and Walter Payton that is some accomplishment!

My thoughts on Next Week: The Steelers CAN NOT let down against the Falcons, this is easily the most winnable game of the final three. Which is why I am scared. The Steelers match up very well with the Falcons so I don’t think it will be a repeat of the Bucs and Jets.

With my entire family and the Beer We Go crew in attendance, the Steelers played lousy all day and in the end couldn’t overcome two turnovers, dropping a “must win” to the Saints.

Ben Roethlisberger had one of the worst games in his career, while his numbers will look good on paper, the game was an absolute wreck. He completed three of his first nine passes, missed a wide open Heath Miller several times and was intercepted twice in the game. If the Saints didn’t drop interceptions, he could have been picked off as many as five times. Very rarely do the Steelers have the disadvantage at QB, Sunday Drew Brees clearly out played Ben and carved up the Steelers weak secondary.

The defense is terrible, plain and simple.  It starts up front. This should have been a strength for the Steelers but now looks like a liability. The pass rush has been non-existent and the defensive line couldn’t hold the point of attack on the run.

The Linebackers are not getting after the QB. Jason Worilds and James Harrison both had their moments but both struggled. The Steelers, secondary couldn’t have played much worse even with Troy and Ike coming back. Both Willie Gay and Ike Taylor were burned by Kenny Stills for long passes during the game. Antwon Blake and Brice McCain both made critical mistakes. Troy Polamalu and Mike Mitchell were both non-existent.

The bright spots were of course Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown. Bell was nearly unstoppable in the first half and Antonio Brown played the second half with a chip on his shoulder and the numbers were hard fought and earned. The other bright spot was Heath Miller who did a tremendous job and completely outshined Jimmy Graham. He finished with eight catches and 82 yards.

The Steelers rallied but in the end made way to many mistakes to pull this one out. Given extra time off from the bye and playing a team that had lost three in a row and was coming off a Monday night whipping didn’t provide any advantage and in the end the Steelers lost once again to a team that was under .500.

The Steelers need to figure out what type of team they are!

My “GAME BEER” goes to: I am going with Antonio Brown who had a big day again with eight catches for 97 yards and two touchdowns. He added to his record and he played with a nasty edge. Also Considered: Le’Veon Bell, who played great as well and easily deserved it. Brett Keisel who was all over the field and most likely played his last game in the NFL. I am proud I was there for it, no matter what the score is.

Where I watched the game: In the ‘Burgh with my entire family! It was an unbelievable experience, between the Duquesne Incline, Primanti Brothers (3x), the Strip district, Peppis an amazing Tailgate with the Beer We Go Steelers Original Crew, Louis Lipps, Robin Cole and Barry Foster in attendance. We sat in the 524 section with Beer We Go President, Tom Janicki!

My Stat of the week: 5 Touchdowns thrown by Drew Brees who absolutely exposed the Steelers defense and the secondary.

My thoughts on Next Week: The Steelers need to show up and give the Bengals a run for their money. The Steelers are capable of beating the Bengals but need to play much better!!!

SPECIAL REPORT FROM “LITTLE MISS TAILGATE”:
Hi everyone “Little Miss Tailgate” here and I haven’t written in the blog in so long and I am happy to write again.

This past weekend went to Pittsburgh and had a lot of fun. At the tailgate I hung out with the one and only Captain Tailgate and the BWG Steelers crew. Something really exciting happened, I had an amazing opportunity to meet Robin Cole. He was very nice. During the tailgate out of nowhere people started chucking marshmallows at other people and it was hilarious. I also got to see the Great Hall in Heinz Field which was amazing.

During the first quarter of the game we started off great and Le’Veon Bell took the spotlight with 75 rushing yards.

It wasn’t until the second quarter where we started falling behind and the Saints took the lead for good.

The Steelers had some key injuries, during the game Brett Keisel tore one of his triceps and Troy Polamalu had a stinger. 🙁

I think that the Steelers best player of the game was Le’Veon Bell because he did an amazing job running the ball. I gave him an A+.

I hope you guys enjoyed this and I will be writing more soon.

Because of the Bye Week, this is technically the 3/4 season report.

What has gone right? 

It has been a very strange but exciting beginning to the season. The Steelers sit a half game out of first place and have started to turn up the offense (5th in the league) and have improved on defense.

Le’Veon Bell is better than advertised and does everything extremely well. He can catch, run and block. He has been a huge addition and a key to the Steelers record.

As in past seasons the Steelers Wide Receivers are plain awesome and despite losing Manny Sanders, have actually gotten better. Antonio Brown can make a case that he is the best receiver in football. Markus Wheaton has really stepped up and despite some lapses has been everything that one could ask for. Martavis Bryant is scary good and he has not yet scratched his potential. All the veterans have contributed.

Speaking of veterans, Heath Miller, James Harrison and Brett Keisel have all had turn back the clock for some years. Miller has been great and nothing short of it. Harrison and Keisel both have contributed and helped keep the defense in games. It is fun watching these guys.

What has gone wrong?

Injuries have been awful again, losing Jarvis Jones, Ryan Shazier, Ike Taylor and Troy Polamalu all have missed time. The pass rush has been nonexistent and the defense is a long way from the days of Blitzburgh!

The Steelers continued their trend losing to the dreck of football. They almost were upset by Jacksonville and Tenn. but pulled both games out. For those who are scoring at home the Steelers lost two games to teams who are now 4-18. All we need to do is lose to the Raiders for the Crappola Trifecta.

Reasons for Concern: The defense needs to find a pass rush. The Steelers can beat ANYONE…and proved they can lose to anyone. So that scares me. The offensive line needs to hold up and the young guys need to stay on the field and bring this thing home!

Offensive Game Beer: Has to be Antonio Brown again, he has 1100+ yards receiving and 88 catches. He narrowly beats out Ben Roethlisberger who would have been the game beer winner, if not for the Jets game. Le’Veon Bell who does everything well.

Defensive Game Beer: James “Silverback” Harrison who came off the couch to lead the team in sacks. While the defense has been mediocre at best, Silverback has stepped it up.

Disappointment of the first half: Losing to the F-ing Bucs on my Birthday and the loser Jets in NY. The Bucs had a spirited game and worked hard for the win, they kind of caught the Steelers flat footed. The Jets was inexcusable. They played flat all day and again if they won either of those games they are in first place. If they won both they would be in first place and tied for the best record in the NFL. It amazes me how the Steelers could lose to either team considering how lousy both are.

Most Improved: I am going with Markus Wheaton. He looks like he can be a huge factor and a key to the pass happy offense.

GRADES:

QB: A-, Big Ben has played extremely well except for the Jets game. He gives the Steelers a chance to win every week.

RB: A-, This could have been an A+ if Blount didn’t get himself kicked off the team this week. Le’Veon Bell has performed beyond expectations. Unfortunately, right now he is a party of one. Will Johnson has done his usual good job.

WR: A+, This crew is plain great, They have a Superstar Antonio Brown, They have two young stars on the way up Markus Wheaton and Martavis Bryant, two cagey veterans in Darrius Heyward-Bey and Lance Moore and a middle of the road rookie in Justin Brown.

TE: B-, Heath Miller has played extremely well. Matt Spaeth has filled his roll well. Michael Palmer has made a few appearances.

OL: C+, The line has played fairly well. They too are getting better and need to show improvement. Marcus Gilbert should get comeback player of the year, after being humiliated on Thursday Night Football he stepped up big time.

DL: C-, Have played okay, looked great in some games, looked terrible in other games. This is the same note as last year, Brett Keisel has played well in spot duty. I am looking forward to the combination of Stephon Tuitt, Mount McCullers and Steelhead Heyward. That should be the varsity with Keisel, Thomas and McClendon working their way into the rotation.

LB: C+, Jason Worilds has all but disappeared on defense. He has four sacks but doesn’t seem to be much of a factor. James Harrison has done great and seems to be getting better but is also 36. Arthur Moats, Sean Spence and Vince Williams have done nicely in spot duty but all lack consistency.  Lawrence Timmons has played consistent and is an unsung hero. Ryan Shazier is exciting but has been injured most of the Season. Jarvis Jones has been sidelined with injuries.

DBs: C-, The “new” look secondary has performed fairly well. Antwon Blake and Brice McCain with William Gay have been doing okay. Mike Mitchell has not been the addition we have hoped. Troy Polamalu is still a factor but has been out for two plus weeks. Will Allen has done an okay job filling in but the team is different with Troy on the field. Cortez Allen has been a complete disaster and looks lost. Ike Taylor has been gone almost the whole season. He can still be a factor.

Coaching: C-, The coaches are doing C work right now. The record and where they are in the standings is passable. Losing to the Bucs and Jets is just inexcusable and downright embarrassing. The Steelers also have had strange wins like the Texans and the Titans. They need to put the petal to the ground here for the next five games.

What does part two look like: The Steelers have both the division and a first round bye within reach. They need to keep Ben vertical, and they need to continue to work on their offense and find the right combination on defense. Logic dictates the Steelers will split with Bengals beat the Falcons and Saints and drop the game to the Chiefs. I figured on 10-6 at the beginning of the season with a possible 11-5 with some luck and 9-7 if we stink up the place. Of course I figured a much different W-L total to get us there but somehow we are there.

BEER WE GO STEELERS! BEER WE GO!

The Steelers reversed the trend of losing to the bottom feeders with a 4th quarter comeback over the Tennessee Titans. Using a tough ground game and some timely defense, the Steelers overcame a week performance.

The Steelers were intent on getting the ground game on track and they did just that, Consistently feeding Le’Veon Bell the ball. Bell carried the first six plays and had three runs of 12 yards or longer on his first eight rushes. He had his new career-high of 204 yards and he grinded the Titans down.

Antonio Brown was back after a terrible game against the Jets, Brown extended his NFL record streak in the first half, he had six catches including three third-down conversions. He finished with nine catches and 91 yards, including the winning 12-yard TD. Martavis Bryant made a few rookie mistakes but is still a very exciting prospect, Dri Archer is almost a forgotten man now. Old Reliable Heath Miller put together his usual solid game.

Ben Roethlisberger struggled most of the game and made some key mistakes, but in the end he gutted it out and led the Steelers down the field in the 4th quarter. He finished with 207 yards and at no point did he seemed rattled by the deficit.

The defense made several timely plays, despite a mediocre pass rush all night. William Gay had a feast or famine night with a pick Six to put the Steelers up 10 points, then he was torched by former Steeler Nate Washington for a score at the end of the first half. The Steelers also had trouble covering Chase Coffman who scored a touchdown as well. The secondary came together though and all but shut out the Titans in the second half while the front seven kept the Titans paralyzed  on the ground. The Brett Kiesel revival continued and the Steelers are employing him perfectly. Mt. McCullers had a nice showing in his first start.

The Steelers played far from a perfect game but this time they were able to over come it!

BEER WE GO STEELERS, BEER WE GO!

My “GAME BEER” goes to: Not much thought needed here, Le’Veon Bell who chewed up 204 yards on the ground with a Touch down and put the Steelers in position to win the game. Also Considered: Coach Munchak for helping lead a win on his old turf and beating two former Steeler coaches! That was the Janicks suggestion. Antonio Brown, who seems to have shaken off the Jets game, Vince Williams who was all over the field!

Where I watched the game: Buckley’s again for our last Prime time game! Great crew of people including KGB and our two older boys, Billy and E-Roc who was repping BWG. Our friends Matt, Jen and Dean. The beer of choice was Sam Adams and they I switched to Miller Lite.

My Stat of the week: 204 Yards rushing for Le’Veon Bell. Who joins the top five performances in Steelers history for a single game!

My thoughts on Next Week: The much needed BYE week, hopefully we get Troy and Shazier back. During this week we will publish our thoughts on the “first half” of the year.

Despite a raucous pro-Steelers crowd, the Steelers continued the disturbing trend of losing to sub 500 teams, as they completely showed up flat against the New York Jets. The Jets scored 17 points in the first quarter and held on to win 20-13, despite, being dominated in every offensive category.

The offense floundered all day and despite playing against the worst secondary in football, the Steelers didn’t take many shots down the field. The Jets did a great job pressuring Ben Roethlisberger and he looked off and out of synch all day with receivers. He threw a momentum crushing interception into triple coverage.  While at some point we expected him to come back to earth, I don’t think anyone expected it do be that bad, against a team that is signing guys off the street.

The offensive line struggled early in protection but got it together in pass protection. The down side was they couldn’t seem to create running room all day, and the Haley offense seemed to just give up on the run. Le’Veon Bell found very little room to run, the lone bright spot being he is now the single season receptions leader, eclipsing John L. Williams.

The defense had trouble with contain and Michael Vick escaped pressure several times, he was the wild card in the game and the Steelers really didn’t have the answer.  But after a horrendous first quarter, they knuckled up and held the Jets in check for the most part.

The high point, Shaun Suisham hit the longest field goal of his career, the low point was every other thing on special teams. Suisham missed a chip shot field goal, Antonio Brown muffed a punt.

It was just a terrible game for the Steelers all day, they made several key mistakes on offense, with four turnovers, they had lapses on defense, and missed a chip shot field goal.

The best thing is to turn the page and reverse the trend against the Titans next week.

BEER WE GO STEELERS, BEER WE GO!

My “GAME BEER” goes to: Honestly, I have no idea who would even qualify, the game was that strange. Everybody sort of sleep walked through the game.

Where I watched the game: At Met Life Stadium, with a pro Steelers crowd, who were extremely disappointed. I went with KGB, my buddy Bill and his buddy Mike, also our friends Christine(Jets) and Mike. They made jello shots, and we had a great tailgate! Very disappointed, also Bill and I are 0-2 when going together!

My Stat of the week: 2-16, yup I stole this stat from last year. That was the combined record of the Bucs and Jets. I literally could see this coming a mile away and I am disgusted that we lost. If the Steelers won just one of these two extremely winnable games, they would be in first place right now. Under Mike Tomlin, the Steelers have lost NINE times to teams that have finished 6-10 or worse. I am a huge Tomlin supporter but that is a disturbing fact.

My thoughts on Next Week: I expect a bounce back week and for the Steelers to absolutely jump the Titans off the bus. They will be in primetime and will be out for blood.

Rack up another big win for Ben Roethlisberger and the Black and Gold as the Steelers whupped the Ravens 43-23. The night belonged to Ben Roethlisberger again, as he passed for 340 yards and threw for SIX Touchdowns a new NFL record for a two game span. He wasn’t nearly as sharp as he was against the Ravens but he absolutely torched the Ravens.

BEER WE GO STEELERS, BEER WE GO

My “GAME BEER” goes to: We are giving out two this week! DUH Part two…Big Ben again, passing for 340 yards and a whopping six touchdowns! And Silverback! Who put on a show with two huge sacks and several pressures. Also considered; Antonio Brown who caught 11 passes and just played out of his mind, Martavis Bryant, Lawrence Timmons who had 11 tackles and played great.

Where I watched the game: At the house with KGB in front of a crackling fire. The beer of choice was Sam October which was great. Only downside, I almost knocked a 5oo dollar, 300 pound mirror off the wall when Matt Spaeth caught the sixth touchdown of the game!

My Stat of the week: SIX Touchdowns by Ben Roethlisberger a new NFL record for two games and he honestly wasn’t as sharp as usual.

My thoughts on Next Week: We will actually be in attendance for the Jets game. This game SCARES the hell out of me. It is the classic trap game and does anyone else remember the Bucs game, or the Raiders last year?

The Steelers offense put up a mind boggling 51 points to out distance the Colts. Big Ben Roethlisberger set team records in touchdown passes (6 TDs), passing yards(522) and completions(40) in leading his team to a huge victory!

Everything clicked Sunday and I mean everything for the offense, Roethlisberger hit nine different receivers, Antonio Brown had his usual great game including an awesome one handed catch in the end zone. Martavis Bryant left very little doubt about his draft status as he absolutely looks like a star in the making. Markus Wheaton and Heath Miller had tremendous games.

The Steelers grinded out a solid running performance, behind a tremendous performance by the offensive line, Ben dropped back 49 times and never hit the turf once.

While the offense gave up 34 points they actually played better than the numbers indicated. Cortez Allen is an absolute disaster in coverage right now and the tackling was suspect. However, Antwon Blake and William Gay both made huge plays.

James Harrison and Brett Keisel continued their revival and the front seven terrorized Andrew Luck all day long. He only was sacked twice but was absolutely pummeled on every series.

It was a great win.

BEER WE GO STEELERS, BEER WE GO!

My “GAME BEER” goes to: DUH…Big Ben, during the game The Janick sent me a text saying we should give him a case of beer. What a day! It was one for the record books. Also considered; Antonio Brown who caught a mind blowing 10 passes, Heath Miller who went over 100 yards, James Harrison and Brett Keisel who turned back the clock on Sunday

Where I watched the game: This is a tricky one, I tried to watch it on my phone as I had a professional commitment but no luck, once my phone started blowing up I dashed to a great Steelers Bar in NYC, which was loaded with Steeler fans. I only got to see the last minutes of the first half and then watched the Steelers clinch it at Emmett O’Lunneys, The beer of choice was IC light and Harp.  

My Stat of the week: 520 Yards by Ben Roethlisberger a new Steelers record and it was the second time in his career that he passed for over 500 yards a new NFL record.

My thoughts on Next Week: The Steelers need to keep the foot on the gas with the offense. A win Sunday puts them right back in the think of the race.

The Steelers struggled early then proceeded to jumped the Texans with a 3-minute onslaught that included, two turnovers, a touchdown pass THROWN by Antonio Brown and a wake up call by the defense. After letting the Texans score on three straight possessions the Steelers just unloaded.

The linebackers stepped up and swung the momentum back to the Steelers after playing 26 minutes or so of a horrid first half. Jason Worilds finally appeared and forced a huge Arian Foster fumble, that was recovered by Sean Spence. Lawrence Timmons play was just gutsy, almost literally as he puked on the field then deflected a pass to Brett Keisel for an interception. He also had a huge sack coming off the edge. Timmons and Spence both made big stops on short yardage and they snuffed out the Texans offense in the second half. It was a good turnaround effort.

The secondary continues to struggle again, Cortez Allen was the biggest culprit. However, Brice McCain had a good game as did William Gay and Troy Polamalu and Mike Mitchell both maintained law and order after the first half. Mitchell had a big strip that all but sealed the Steelers win in the second half.

The offense continues to be inconsistent and Monday was no exception. One thing that can’t be disputed is that the talent on the team is deep and exciting to watch. Antonio Brown continues to be a star and performs at a high level every week, as does Le’Veon Bell. Martavis Bryant showed flashes of his talent and while it is a work in progress, the Steelers offense looks like it could be awesome. Big Ben played well, throwing for 265 yards and two touchdowns. The protection, even without Marcus Gilbert, was great. Mike Adams did a nice job filling in.

The Special teams would have had a GREAT week except for getting caught sleeping on a fake punt and nearly fumbling the desperation onside kick. Otherwise the coverage was great and Ross Ventrone (Fake Troy) and Robert Golden both stood out this week.

Three minutes changed the entire game…and hopefully the season!

BEER WE GO STEELERS, BEER WE GO!

My “GAME BEER” goes to: Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown. Both had solid games and continue to be the backbone of the offense. Also considered; Lawrence Timmons and Mike Adams

Where I watched the game: BUCKLEYS!!!, With a great crew of fans, including KGB, my buddy Matt and his awesome GF Jen. We won the raffle which included some t shirts and an Islanders drinking glove. The beer of choice was Guinness but to change mojo went back to old faithful, Miller Lite.  

My Stat of the week: 24 points in less than three minutes is my kind of stat. It was wild few minutes for sure!

My thoughts on Next Week: The Steelers will need to keep moving the ball and keep Andrew Luck off the field. They need to play a complete game on both sides of the ball, if they have any shot of beating the Colts.