Drew Brees threw five touchdown passes to five different receivers as the New Orleans Saints came into Heinz Field and defeated a sloppy Pittsburgh Steelers team 35-32, in a game that could prove very costly to the Steelers playoff hopes.
The game was a blowout and nowhere near as close as the three-point difference would indicate.
All signs pointed to the Steelers having success against a team that had won only four games coming into Sunday.
The Saints were a poor road team coming off a Monday night game. Meanwhile the Steelers were coming off their bye week.
None of that mattered as the Steelers were outplayed all afternoon.
“It was really an unfortunate performance and not the type of performance we needed to secure a victory,” said Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. “The bottom line is that we didn’t have enough cohesion at different points in the game to overcome our weaknesses. We were getting off the field defensively and not putting touchdowns on the board. Then when we got it going in the second half we couldn’t get the necessary stops.”
The Steelers had a pair of lengthy drives early on that featured Le’Veon Bell picking up chunks of yardage at a time, but the drives stalled when they tried to turn to the air.
The results were a pair of Shaun Suisham field goals, one from 49-yards out, the other from 31, to give the Steelers an early 6-0 lead.
The missed opportunities came back to bite the Steelers in a big way.
Brees finally got the Saints offense rolling and threw touchdowns on back-to-back drives.
The first was a 15-yard pass to tight end Ben Watson that came as a result of a blown coverage from James Harrison, who had no help over the top. That capped an eight-play 79-yard New Orleans drive.
The second, which gave New Orleans a 14-6 halftime lead, was a four-yard scoring pass from Brees to fullback Eric Lorig. That came three plays after Brees hit Kenny Stills, who torched William Gay, for a big 44-yard gain.
“Anytime you can be positive when it comes to turnover ratio, your chances of winning goes way up,” said Brees. “We were able to turn their turnovers into touchdowns. But it was a good road win for us. My mentality, my approach, my preparation and process throughout the week doesn’t change regardless of whether or not people are singing my praises or telling me I can’t play anymore. I pride myself on being a leader for my team and we went out and executed well and won a big game today.”
New Orleans picked right up where they left off in the first half, torching the Steelers defense.
Brees tacked on three more touchdown passes, an 11-yard connection to Nick Toon, a 69-yard hookup to Stills and a three-yard touchdown to Marques Colston, which gave the Saints a 35-16 lead in the fourth quarter.
The future Hall of Famer finished the afternoon completing 19-of-27 passes for 257 yards and the five touchdowns.
Second-year pro Stills was the recipient of several of the big plays as the Steelers secondary left Stills wide open all game long. He finished the day with five receptions for 162 yards, a 32.4 yards per catch average. His third quarter touchdown, in which he torched Ike Taylor, essentially broke the Steelers back.
“It’s tough,” said Taylor, who made his return to the lineup Sunday. “It’s just one of those days. What I put on film today I have to eat it, correct it and come back next Sunday. When you play inconsistent football, beginning with myself, against a Hall of Fame quarterback like Drew Brees, that’s what happens.”
Meanwhile Roethlisberger struggled in a big way.
Roethlisberger was off the mark all afternoon long, missing open receivers frequently. He finished completing 32-of-58 pass attempts for 435 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions.
His line looks a bit inflated as most of his yardage came late, after the outcome had long been decided.
Truth be told, Roethlisberger was off the mark so often that he was fortunate to only have been intercepted twice as the Saints defense dropped a few potential others.
“I have got to play better,” said Roethlisberger. “It was just one of those days where the ball was coming out high. They tipped a lot of balls, more than usual. I just have to make throws early on in the game that I didn’t make today and I usually do.”
It wasn’t just the Saints passing attack that had success though as Mark Ingram ran for 122 yards in the win.
After a slow start on the ground, the Saints started to gash the Steelers defense beginning in the second quarter, mostly running right at Cam Thomas.
“It’s an absolute team loss,” said Mike Mitchell. “All three phases we didn’t play good enough to win. It’s not on one person. It’s on all of us. We’ve got four games left. We are in control of what happens from here on out.”
Falling behind big all but wasted a good day from running back Le’Veon Bell, who gained 95 yards on the ground with a one-yard touchdown run, and another 159 yards through the air. Unfortunately for the Steelers, 71 of Bell’s rushing yards came in the first quarter.
In the process though Bell eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark for the season, becoming the first Steelers running back to do so since 2010 when Rashard Mendenhall accomplished the feat.
Roethlisberger threw two late touchdowns to Antonio Brown, who finished with eight receptions for 97 yards, to make the score look closer.
“We didn’t make enough plays today,” said Brown. “It’s as simple as that.”
Photo Credit: Pittsburgh Steelers
