The Pittsburgh Steelers headed to San Diego for a Monday night road game and rallied late to walk away with a 24-20 victory.
There were some positives to take away from the Steelers performance and also a ton of negatives that stick out.
I take a look back at Monday’s night’s performance and hand out my weekly grades in this week’s edition of our Steelers Report Card.
Quarterback- For over 52 minutes of football, Mike Vick was not very good, which in reality should be expected. What wasn’t expected was Vick making a couple huge plays which put the Steelers in position to win the game. On the night he was a pedestrian 13-of-26 for 203 yards with a touchdown and an interception.
Seventy-two of those yards came on a quick strike bomb to Markus Wheaton one play after the Chargers took the lead. Vick also made a huge play with a 24-yard scramble that helped put the Steelers in position to win the game. Grade: C
Running Backs- Le’Veon Bell finished the night with 111 yards, his second 100-yard game in a row. That included his walk-off touchdown out of the wildcat formation as time expired. Bell had 89 of his rushing yards in the first half and it would have been nice to see him get the rock even more, but overall it was another solid effort. Grade: A-
Wide Receivers- Wheaton made the big play of the game and it was his first sighting in the offense in a while. Other than that there wasn’t many plays to go around for the pass catchers. It also was another bad night for Antonio Brown, who had only three catches for 45 yards. Grade: B
Offensive Line– The Steelers came out wanting to run the ball and Bell averaged 5.3 yards per carry on the night. They got away from that in the second half, but the line did not allow Vick to be sacked in the second half. We are also probably sitting here talking about a loss if it wasn’t for a big block from David DeCastro on Bell’s final touchdown run. Grade: B+
Defensive Line- A week after getting torn to shreds on the ground, the Steelers defense allowed just 52 yards rushing as the Chargers averaged only 2.7 yards per carry. Cam Heyward was credited with only one tackle, but was very disruptive and Stephon Tuitt looks better every week. Grade: B+
Linebackers– It wasn’t a great night for the linebackers as they struggled in pass coverage again as Antonio Gates made a bunch of big plays. But I though Jarvis Jones looked pretty solid as he had a sack and a forced fumble and rookie Bud Dupree had an0ther sack. Lawrence Timmons led the way with nine tackles, but his biggest play may have been batting down a Phillip Rivers pass in the fourth quarter. Grade: C+
Secondary– Other than an Antwon Blake pick six, it wasn’t a very good day for the secondary. Mike Mitchell especially I thought wasn’t great. Rivers completed 35-of-48 passes for 358 yards and a pair of scores as there were plenty of open receivers running around all night. But the secondary did put points on the board and that turned out to be huge. Grade: C
Special Teams- Punter Jordan Berry was a bright spot, pinning six kicks inside the 20 and new kicker Chris Bowell didn’t miss a kick. That was the good news. However there was plenty of bad news as well as the Steelers took four penalties on special teams, in the first half, which could have been a killer in a big game. Grade: D+
Coaching- One area I give Mike Tomlin credit is that his teams often bounce back after a loss. They could have easily laid an egg last night, but they found a way to come home with a win. However not catching the fact that 18 seconds came off the clock late in the game could have been a killer. I did like the gutsy move to go for the win though.
Offensively the Steelers had to get away from the ground game which was working, partially because they were trailing, but they picked the perfect time to turn Vick loose. I guess you can thank coach Ben Roethlisberger for that.
Defensively there’s some things to clean up, but it wasn’t a bad performance. I liked the fact that they blitzed a lot, putting a ton of pressure on a banged up Chargers offensive line.
There are still a ton of breakdowns on special teams though as it seems like that is something that never gets fixed. Grade: B
Photo Credit: Getty Images
