Someone get Lendale White a tissue. I think he would seek to hide his face under one on his trip away from Pittsburgh.
During an evening where Troy Polamalu succumbed to a knee injury, Wille Parker and the rest of the Pittsburgh running back corps couldn’t seem to get things going, and Hines Ward managed one thing he hardly ever does – lost the ball during a big play situation. Ben Roethlisberger was firm in the backfield, took several sacks, although in the end architected yet one more game winning drive to help the Steelers edge the Titans 13-10 in the football season opener.
It did not begin nicely for Big Ben and company; Tennessee brought their “A” game and virtually shut the Steelers running game down.
Roethlisberger was cool under pressure, though. Yeah, he threw 2 picks (Brett Favre does it religiously, and there are people eager to bow down to him when he comes into a room, so get off this).
But he furthermore passed for 363 yards, which included 60 yards on his last drive of the game.
Pittsburgh’s defense rose to the occasion and executed when the chips were down, especially on special teams, where a blocked Rob Bironas field goal led to their only touchdown of the game.
Of course, that play cost them Troy Polamalu, but it only slowed them down for a moment or two.
If Hines Ward had either fallen down or shifted a little more quickly at the climax of his run in the 4th quarter, the game might have concluded earlier.
However this was too nice a game to not go to OT. Both organizations had played their hearts out, both organizations had athletes sidelined to injury, and an extra period seemed the only reasonable way to settle the game.
If, that is, you might deem NFL overtimes reasonable.
After Pittsburgh won the toss, Roethlisberger and the team made short work of a wheezing Tennessee defense, driving downfield for 63 yards to set up the game-winning field goal.
For the best NFL forum online and a great football pick ‘em on the web, visit RootZoo.