Steelers MMQB: NFL Week 7 Wrap Up

What we learned after Week 7 in the NFL:

• Tebow saves the Dolphins chances at Andrew Luck
• Carson Palmer hadn’t washed all the Bungle-funk off of him yet
• Drew Brees and the Saints beat the Colts like they stole something as Peyton watched in horror
• The return of the Steelers defensive splash plays

After all the build-up for the Tebow start in Miami this week, the game began with the two teams trading 3 and outs and I thought to myself, “This could be the crappiest game ever played.”  Apparently that was what was going on in Cleveland though.  The Dolphins jumped out to a 15-0 lead and then sat back almost helplessly to watch Tebow carve up the defense, accounting for 2 touchdowns and the game tying 2 point conversion.  The Broncos went on to win in overtime and the Dolphins still have a chance to keep their perfectly winless season going in order to draft Stanford QB Andrew Luck.

Another game that was full of build-up and anticipation was Kansas City at Oakland, after what Raiders head coach Hue Jackson called, “The greatest trade in NFL history”.  Jackson was secretive all week long as to whether or not exceptionally average QB Carson Palmer would get the start after coming off of his couch.  Palmer stepped into the game for Kyle Boller, who had thrown 3 interceptions, only to throw 3 interceptions himself in a 28-0 loss.  Jackson just might file a police report now that he realizes that he got robbed by the Bungles for Palmer.

The Saints put up a historical 62 points against the winless Colts in a very painful to watch Sunday night game.  The Colts and Rams are also still alive in the Andrew Luck sweepstakes, but I’m pulling for Miami.  Never has one team crumbled so completely after the loss of one player like the Colts are this season.  To the best of my recollection, Peyton has never played a snap on defense, but since all this time it seems he was acting as the offensive coordinator I suppose it’s possible he was calling the defensive plays as well.  These numbers are just brutal, Brees went 31-35 for 325 yards and 5 TD’s, the Saints had 36 first downs to the Colts 11, and the Saints gained a total of 557 yards of offense to the Colts 252.  Ouch.

The Steelers traveled to what looked like a west coast home game in Arizona for a Super Bowl 43 rematch, of sorts.  The Cardinals had some build-up of their own coming into this season with the acquisition of Kevin Kolb.  On the Cardinals first possession, a tipped ball landed in the hands of Ryan Clark, who returned it 31 yards.  Ben then found Heath Miller in the end zone five plays later.  There was a return of the defensive splash plays as LaMarr Woodley accounted for 2 sacks as well as a safety, causing Kolb an intentional grounding in the end zone.

The Steelers were also blessed with some offensive splash plays, with Roethlisberger and Wallace combining for a 95 yard touchdown, the longest pass reception in Steelers history.  Can I just take a moment to say how beautiful that play was?  I could watch the highlights of that single play over and over again.  This is coming from a defense-loving Steeler fan who would mostly enjoy watching highlights of sacks and defensive takeaways but that pass and catch was a thing of beauty.  The running game, unfortunately, was a little ugly.  Mendenhall followed his 146 yard performance last week with 32 rushing yards and all of the Steelers running backs together combined for only 91 yards.  Somehow, without a dominant running game, the Steelers still managed to control the clock, limiting the Cardinals to just 24 minutes of possession.

So what do Steeler fans take away from this game?  Well the running game and penalties seem to be the low-lights of this latest performance.  Chris Kemouatu seems to be the only offensive lineman I’ve ever heard of that has gotten more than one flag for a late hit.  Ike Taylor was getting a bit too physical at times with his matchup against Larry Fitzgerald, but for the most part, the yellow flags were raining for both teams.  Ben, however, has been near perfect the past three games with 9 touchdowns and just 1 interception.  The good thing was when the Steelers got the lead, they held it.  They made the plays necessary, even after Cardinal scoring drives, to stay in the driver’s seat of the game and never gave it up.  Obviously there were things that can be improved upon, and should be improved upon since the Patriots are coming to town, but I certainly feel a lot better about this 5-2 record after 7 games.  Bring it on Week 8!

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