While we were watching the first half of this game, it was obvious which team was the reigning Super Bowl champions and which one wasn’t. It’s been a while since I’ve watched a football game and seen one team complete outclass the other, but that’s what I saw tonight.
The Steelers defense ate Dick Jauron’s no-huddle up like a midnight snack and Ben Roethlisberger just toyed with Buffalo’s defense. Watching Roethlisberger was like watching my roommate play Madden…he just sat back, scrambled a bit and made a laser-guided throw to whichever receiver he felt like throwing to. There was no way he was being stopped.
We all know the defense will show up again this season. But if the offense can channel whatever we saw during that 13 play, 87 yard drive that ate up over six minutes of clock….this team will have a heck of a chance to go back to back. They were awesome to watch tonight.
Grades, WTF moments, and much more after the jump….
Grades
Paul Posluszny – B+
Posluszny is probably Bam’s biggest mancrush of all time. The guy is a brutally efficient linebacker and a Pittsburgh kid. It’s only his third season and he’s the rock of that defense. He’ll be an All-Pro linebacker very soon.
James Harrison/James Farrior – A
Okay, Pittsburgh’s linebackers aren’t so bad either. It was just domination as usual and they were completely unstoppable once again.
Rashard Mendenhall – B+
He looked a lot better tonight than he has in previous games. He’s still missing one gear and needs to break a few more tackles, but the vision and burst was much improved tonight. We called him out and he showed up tonight. Good to see.
Aaron Maybin’s hair cut – C+
Whatever. We’re big Penn State fans.
Big Ben – A++++
Honestly, one of the better games we’ve seen from him. He was very calm and collect under pressure and made the right decision nearly every time. His throws were all on tonight and he was just as good as any other QB on the planet.
Trent Edwards – D
Dude is having a terrible preseason and if he doesn’t play well Buffalo will undoubtedly suck. We’ll see TO will have a melt down by week six.
Steelers wide receivers – B+
Props to Kevin Colbert and Mike Tomlin for assembling such a deep and talented WR unit. So many guys made good catches tonight and the unfortunate bottom line is that some good football players won’t make this team in a week or two.
Keyaron Fox – B
He’s had a great preseason and is proving to be more than just a solid special teams player. He can play some good LB too.
Stefan Logan – A-
Welcome to the team.
First team offensive line – C+
Pass protection was pretty decent during most of the first half, but they were awfully inconsistent in opening up holes for the running game. This will probably be an ongoing theme this season.
Game Ball
James Farrior – An easy choice. One of our favorite Steelers who doesn’t always make flashy plays but is the surest tackler of the bunch. His TD will be the best moment of the preseason, no doubt.
WTF Moment of the Game
Dezmond Sherrod getting tackled by a blade of grass with nobody within 10 yards of him. Nice job getting open, but no way he beats out David Johnson by falling over like that.
Play that made you get off your couch and yell
James Harrison plastering Dom Rhodes on a checkdown pass in the 2nd quarter. Typically, these are the types of plays were you see a defense employ gang tackling but Silverback just rocked him and shoved him backwards three or four yards before throwing him down.
Surprise of the game
Joe Burnett blocking a punt. He’s made a lot of negative plays, so that was awesome to see him help preserve a shutout by laying out on special teams. Those are the types of little plays that help a guy hold down his roster spot.
Guy we’d love to see in a Steelers’ uniform
Posluszny or Maybin. Or any of the 9823234 Bills who went to Penn State. AQ Shipley is lonely.
The final word
The rest of the AFC has to be scared after watching that first half.
