Leading up to Monday’s game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Washington, everyone was focused on who was missing from the Steelers’ side. Wide receiver Martavis Bryant? Suspended for the year. Wide receiver Markus Wheaton? Injured for the game. Running back Le’Veon Bell? Suspended for three games. Tight end Heath Miller? Retired.
In fact, Pittsburgh came into Washington D.C. missing players who provided 41 percent of its yards from scrimmage last year.
But Monday’s game ended up being about who was still wearing the black and gold: quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, wide receiver Antonio Brown, running back DeAngelo Williams — and rookie wideout Eli Rogers. Those four propelled the Steelers (1-0) over Washington (0-1), 38-16.
It’s the sixth game in a row that Pittsburgh has defeated Washington (Washington last won in 1991.)
The Steelers got off to a slow and somewhat sloppy start. Roethlisberger was picked on a miscommunication with Rogers, and Brown almost fumbled on an important Pittsburgh drive — the pass was, ultimately, ruled incomplete. Even Williams started slowly, and the Pittsburgh secondary was getting shredded.
But the Steelers got lucky — long enough to have time to get good.
Rogers managed to bring a bouncing ball down for the team’s second touchdown of the half — and Rogers’ first career touchdown. The football rebounded off wide receiver Sammie Coates on a short, bullet pass into the endzone, but Rogers came down with the ball in traffic. Later, Roethlisberger was stripped of the ball, but a Washington player tried to run with it instead of just jumping on it, and he fumbled it back.
Again, luck.
Rogers, who was signed last year as an undrafted free agent before missing the 2015-16 season due to injury, had the opportunity to shine with the absences of Bryant and Wheaton. And he certainly did in the first half, when he was targeted seven times and had six catches (Brown was targeted four times and caught three at the half.)
But, most importantly for Pittsburgh, Roethlisberger was surgical. One of the most criminally underrated quarterbacks — he has to be top-3 in the NFL right now — he picked apart Washington’s secondary. One half of the league’s most dynamic duo, Roethlisberger had everything working. He went long. He went short. He scrambled. He called audibles. It was a quarterback clinic.
And who can ignore the second half of that duo: Brown? It’s only the first game of the season, and we’ve already run out of adjectives to describe what he can do on the field. Roethlisberger and Brown connected on a gutsy call on 4th and 1, producing a 29-yard touchdown into double coverage for the Steelers’ first score. He finished the game with 126 yards on eight catches with two touchdowns.
At this point, all that’s left to describe Brown is the ‘fire’ emoji. Or maybe the ‘100’ one.
The hyped matchup between Brown and Norman didn’t really happen. Brown lined up on the right side of the field, while Norman lined up on the left. The two occasionally faced each other with mixed results, but, for the most part, Brown was left to terrorize cornerback Bashaud Breeland.
After a slow first quarter, Williams started gashing Washington. Last season, Washington had one of the league’s worst defenses against the run (it was 28th worst in total yards allowed per play), and the team did little to correct that in the offseason. And Williams took advantage. On 26 attempts, he went 143 yards and had two touchdowns. He got a lot of help from the Pittsburgh offensive line, which had a great game and put the hammer down on perhaps the game’s most important drive, to close out the game emphatically.
On the flip side, Washington struggled to get anything going on the ground. Running back Matt Jones couldn’t find any holes in a very strong Steeler defensive line. Washington was 20th in the NFL last season in rushing yards (1,566), and that was when it had running back Alfred Morris, who is now with the Dallas Cowboys. In the end, Jones was only able to get 24 yards on seven attempts.
And Washington quarterback Kirk Cousins finished 30-43 for 329 yards, zero touchdowns and two interceptions.
A lot of the poor offensive performance from Washington was due to a strong performance from the Steelers’ defense. Defensive coordinator Keith Butler came in with a smart game plan: Forgo the blitz and let the linebackers hang back to help out the defensive backs. It threw Washington off in a situation where a wideout like DeSean Jackson could have done damage to the Pittsburgh secondary.
Defensive end Cam Heyward continued to impress, and so did linebacker Ryan Shazier (who left the game early with a right knee injury). The two have been phenomenal in recent years, and, if they keep this up, they could be looking at All-Pro or, at least, Pro Bowl, seasons.
If there’s one big takeaway from the game, it’s that if the Steelers are this good with key guys missing, imagine how dangerous they’re going to be when everyone is back.
Image credit: Washington
