The Steelers bent but never broke beating the Detroit Lions 20-15. Despite giving up 482 yards, the Steelers defense kept the Lions out of the End Zone and came up with the plays when needed to generate the win! The offense had a Steelers record setting play and despite a sloppy performance were able to put up enough points for the win.
The pass defense which has been air tight all season, was leaky all night. Matthew Stafford had eight completions of 23 Yards or longer. He finished with 423 yards passing with Marvin Jones Jr., T.J. Jones and Golden Tate doing most of the damage. Sean Davis made some big plays breaking up a big pass in the End Zone and stopping a third down conversion. Artie Burns led the team in tackles. They did have a big bounce back, as the Steelers rushed only three on the last series and provided solid coverage for the win.
The pass rush was non-existent last night. Stafford dropped back 45 times but only hit the deck twice. The only sacks came from Steelhead Heyward and Tyson Alualu as Bud Dupree and T.J. Watt were shutout against a banged up Lions line. Where was Deebo? With a struggling pass rush how come James Harrison was sitting on the bench? The front seven strangled the Lions running game, with the longest run coming on a busted play by Matthew Stafford.
The Lions game plan was to bottle up Le’Veon Bell, and they did a fairly good job, but the Steelers absolutely torched them in the passing game, despite Ben Roethlisberger continuing to be an enigma. He struggled at times and missed some wide open receivers. But he also had completions of 32, 40 and 41 yards and he dropped in a perfect pass to JuJu Smith-Schuster for 97 yards for a NEW Steelers record. He had plenty of time in the pocket as there was no pressure despite playing with third string tackle Matt Feiler filling in on the last series. Eli Rogers continues to seem lost, he didn’t help his case dropping a sure touchdown in the End Zone. Jesse James had two big catches and almost had his head knocked off. Antonio Brown was Antonio Brown putting together five clutch catches and a workman like 70 yards.
With Martavis being inactive because of his nonsense, Smith-Schuster stepped up in a big way. He finished with seven catches for a whopping 193 yards, a touchdown and he set the tone with the first catch of the game for 41 yards! He is now the record holder for the longest pass play in team history for 97 yards!
Little Bos continued his excellent season racking up two more field goals extending his streaks for 11 in a row. The Special teams did a great job containing the dangerous Jamal Agnew.
In the end the Steelers finished the first half exactly where they needed to; 6-2, first place and in command of the division!
BEER WE GO STEELERS, BEER WE GO!
My “GAME BEER” goes to: No brainer this week… JuJu Smith-Schuster. He now holds the longest reception in Steelers history, and there is an underlining theme here. He needed to have a big night after scurrilously being called about by Martavis Bryant and he delivered in a huge way. Also Considered: Matt Feiler, OF COURSE, he did a solid job in his first action of the year!
Where I watched the game: KGB took mercy on me and stayed home with the Tailgate kids. I went to Buckley’s my local Irish Pub with my buddies, Mike, Mike, Jeff and Phil. In a twist of fate, the bartender John who is a friend as well was a Lions fan. He was a good sport about it. The bar lost its feed and we had to use an international feed, which substituted commercials with “A Football Life” clips, very cool to watch. Of course the challenge was getting texts from my buddy Bill and Janick ahead of the play! By the second half it worked out and we were back on track. The beer of choice was Miller Lite and we had four different kinds of wings!
My Stat of the week: Another no brainer, 97 yard reception by JuJu Smith-Schuster for the longest pass play in Steelers history. It tied the NFL record for a rookie and it broke Mike Wallace’s Steelers Record of 95 Yards.
My Thoughts on next week: The Steelers face the BYE week. Or as KGB calls it “Freedom Week”, next week we will post the mid season report!
This week’s Jersey: Le’Veon Bell, #26 Color Rush, which I wore to Saturday Mass and had received a compliment from Father John!