Through most of the Steelers modern history, one statistic often told their story from each game. If they held the ball longer than the opposition, it was a good thing. Grind it, keep the football away from the other guys, keep their own defense on the bench, churn the clock and win.
You can flush that philosophy right down the Ohio, because these Steelers are built for riverboat gamblers who care little about working the clock so much as they do the scoreboard.
The San Francisco 49ers held the ball 14 minutes more than the Steelers Sunday at Heinz Field and left town with a 43-18 spanking.
It seemed like they had the ball a lot more than we did, guard David DeCastro said. But we put it in the end zone.
The offense that scored only one touchdown until the final two seconds in an opening loss to New Englands so-so defense scored three in the second quarter, four in the first half and six total against a defense that allowed just three points in its opening victory.
Ben Roethlisberger completed passes of 59, 56, 48, 41 and 35 yards and was not sacked, not touched, not intercepted. He completed 21 of 27 for 369 yards and those three touchdowns, and with a 155.8 came close to his fourth perfect passer rating (158.3). At 33, he seems to be playing better than ever.
If thats possible, said tight end Heath Miller. I think hes very comfortable with everything were doing. He certainly has the weapons all over the field and he has the guys up front who do a great job to give him time to work.
They gave him all kinds of time Sunday and he skewered the 49ers, who came in with a seemingly foolish game plan trying to gang up around the line of scrimmage and stop the Steelers from running.
Someone should tell West Homestead native Jim Tomsula, San Franciscos rookie coach, that these arent the Steelers he grew up watching. Maybe the 49ers grew a bit too confident when they shut down Adrian Peterson and the Vikings offense last week, including five sacks of Teddy Bridgewater.
To be fair to that strategy, though, the 49ers did double-cover Antonio Brown when he singed them for a 59-yard reception to the 2. Brown added to his legend with another nine receptions for 195 yards and a touchdown.
I was just telling him during the course of the game I thought he was having an OK game, then hes got 200 yards! Miller said, laughing. I guess Im just used to him doing that week in and week out. Hes kind of set a pretty high standard.
Maybe the only ones who can stop these Steelers are these Steelers, as they did in New England.
We certainly have a lot of weapons, Miller said. We just have to eliminate our negative plays.
There werent many of those Sunday, although their first series looked as if the communication problems the Steelers had on defense against the Patriots morphed into their offense. Nevertheless, they scored on their second possession, a 2-yard pass to Miller, converted the 2-point conversion and were off and running with an 8-0 lead.
Things clicked, Roethlisberger said. We did some really good things, threw the ball, ran the ball and scored in the red zone.
Remember that Jumbo-I the Steelers used near the goal line at New England with Roosevelt Nix and Will Johnson trying to hammer it into the end zone? They abandoned that and let old DeAngelo Williams handle things down there Sunday. All he did was tie a franchise record with three rushing touchdowns, two from the 2, one from the 1. Even their modern, high-flying offense can play the old-fashioned game that once was the strength of teams with Franco Harris and Jerome Bettis.
We decided to ride DeAngelo in all situations, coach Mike Tomlin explained. We knew more about his level of conditioning over the period of an entire game this week than we did last week. He stood up pretty good over the course of a long haul a week ago.
Williams added 77 yards on 20 carries after his 127-yard effort at New England as he hands the baton to LeVeon Bell, who returns from his two-game suspension today.
We will see what we do next week, Tomlin said of his backfield plans.
DeAngelo has done an awesome job, Roethlisberger said. I dont think that it means that he will stop being on the field.
As for being on the field, the Steelers defense should have been exhausted. They were on the field for 37 minutes and they did give up 409 yards in total offense. But what they did not give up much were points until the fourth quarter when the game already was in hand.
The Steelers led, 29-3, at halftime and after the end of a scoreless third quarter, when their defense held the 49ers on an 18-play, 82-yard drive without a point. San Francisco had six shots starting at the Steelers 3 four from the 2 and in after a first down. They did not score.
Again in the fourth quarter, the Steelers allowed San Francisco 15 plays and 79 yards, but stopped quarterback Colin Kaepernick at the 1 on a scramble.
We had some good goal-line stands, said defensive end Cam Heyward, who had one of his teams five sacks, two tackles for loss and other disruptions of the 49ers offense. When you can get off the field with no points surrendered, youre putting yourself at a great advantage.
Ryan Shazier, after a slow start Sunday, came through with a dominant performance. He had 15 tackles, a sack, three tackles for loss, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery before he left with a minor shoulder injury.
Hes going to have an impact in whatever stadium hes in, Tomlin said. Hes that kind of player. Hes sharp and has gained experience.
The whole defense had more chances to add to that experience because of all the time they were on the field Sunday. Turns out, it was time well spent.
Ed Bouchette: ebouchette@post-gazette.com and Twitter @EdBouchette.
Source: http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/steelers/2015/09/21/On-the-Steelers-Quick-strike-offense-does-the-trick/stories/201509210114
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