The big practice for real football put to rest some fears we had about the Steelers. Ben was slinging the ball around the field, and just as importantly, his offensive line was giving him time to do so. The Steelers got into some penalty trouble across the board, but the only real problem came when Jarvis Jones was slow to get up and limp over to the bench. We'll have to see what the diagnosis is, but he's going to be crucial to the Steelers' success in 2013. As for the game itself, jump for the full-length recap.
FIRST QUARTER
The Steelers kick off and some dude immediately fumbles. Bob Pompeani is convinced Andy Reid challenged the call, but turnovers are automatic reviews. In any case, Dr. Wily's elbow was down.
That's our first Mega Man reference. 2013 is gonna be a fun year, you guys.
Alex Smith comes out for the Chiefs. Jarvis Jones still doesn't come out with the first team defense. Smith hits Donnie Avery for a few quick first downs. The drive ends when the Chiefs are brilliantly covered downfield and Jason Worilds, Ziggy Hood, and Lawrence Timmons all beat their blockers and bring the QB down.
I think we aren't going to miss Casey Hampton, by the way.
Ben Roethlisberger strolls onto the field and unloads a play action missile to Antonio Brown down the left sideline. He underthrows it, but Brown is three steps ahead of his man. Jonathan Dwyer basically gets the rest of the drive to himself. Kelvin Beachum spends a couple of plays as an elligible tight end and helps block in the running game. Suisham boots a field goal. 3-0.
Miles Davis (?) gets going on a kickoff return and Jarvis Jones kills him. He gets rewarded with the next series at the ROLB spot. Jamaal Charles gets stacked up on 3rd & 1. Ryan Clark comes in at the end pushes the pile into Wilkinsburg. Troy Polamalu insanely times the snap count on 4th & inches and the Steelers take over on downs.
The offense is out of rhythym, but Jerricho Cotchery catches a pass no one has any business catching for a first down. Derrick Johnson shreds the protection and drops Ben ten yards back. Mike Adams whiffs on his block on the next play, but Ben goes full Ben-mode and makes his magic happen. Jonathan Dwyer leaks out of the backfield to find himself uncovered at the goal line. Ben dodges bullets and hits Dwyer for the TD. 10-0.
This man is everything to this franchise.
Jarvis Jones blitzes and tips a screen pass out of the way. Not unlike what Ryan Kerrigan did last week. He's a heck of an athlete. Punt.
David Paulson hears footsteps and drops a ball. Antonio Brown outruns a few DBs for a 1st. KDKA's clock mysteriously shows tenths of seconds but stays at .0 as the seconds tick down.
SECOND QUARTER
Dwyer negates a big gain by Antonio Brown with a iffy chop-block call. Edmund Nelson thinks it was a clean cut block, but cut blocks are nasty anyway. Brian Moorman hits the International Space Station with a punt.
Cortez Allen finally reads the left comeback to Donnie Avery and makes a tackle. Alex Smith fools everyone in Allegheny County on a bootleg to his right and finds Dwayne Bowe for 30 yards. Brett Keisel somehow ends up making the tackle. Junior Hemingway makes a big catch to keep the drive going.
Huh.
Cortez Allen keeps making plays on defense. He isn't shutting down the Chiefs, but he's getting to the ball and tackling well.
On the Steelers' next possession, the offensive line really picks up their game and holds a steady pocket for Ben. Felix Jones makes his debut with a one-yard gain, then Ben Roethlisberger launches a bomb to Emmanuel Sanders. Sanders goes down making the catch and bobbles the ball when he hits the ground out of bounds. It's ruled incomplete.
Interesting. In lieu of challenging non-catch call, Tomlin walks down sideline to shake hands of ref who made call. #Steelers
— Dejan Kovacevic (@Dejan_Kovacevic) August 25, 2013
Mike Tomlin rules.
Suisham comes out to try a long field goal. It gets blocked. Guess who recovers?
Alex Smith eludes a blitz and takes off downfield for a huge rushing gain. He bumps into a Chief down the sideline and Cortez Allen gets flagged for a made-up personal foul. Really lazy job by the ref to not bother looking at what knocked Smith down.In any case, the Chiefs kick a field goal. 10-3.
Kelvin Beachum continues his stint at tight end, and Markus Wheaton makes his first connection with Ben Roethlisberger for a first down. The clock rolls inside two minutes and the Steelers set out with their hurry-up offense. Ben gets sandwiched between a pair of blitzing DBs.
The Chiefs get the ball back with relative ease. Troy Polamalu makes a very rare dumb/selfish play when he takes a shot at Alex Smith after he releases a pass. Edmund Nelson tries to make excuses for it, but it was absolutely worthy of a roughing call.
Smith hits Junior Hemingway in the end zone to top off their two-minute drill. 10-10.
HALFTIME
Like I'm going to watch the depressing local news.
THIRD QUARTER
Felix Jones starts the second half at RB for the Steelers. That's about as interesting as their first drive gets. Chase Daniel takes over for the Chiefs.
Troy Polamalu stays in the game and he doesn't have a half-speed for the preseason. A football gets loose on a stretch play and Polamalu digs it out from everyone's feet. Steelers take over.
It's officially Felix Jones' chance to make the team. Jonathan Dwyer is done for the night and Felix gets the bulk of the carries out of the gate. Bruce Gradkowski tags in for quarterback duties. Emmanuel Sanders misses another catch and the Steelers punt. Ross Ventrone gets noticed on the coverage team.
Jarvis Jones drives a blocker backwards and gets halfway into Chase Daniel's mouth when he has to throw the ball away. Cam Heyward finishes him off.
Spiro Agnew returns the 15 yards Troy Polamalu gave the Chiefs by hitting Gradkowski in the helmet. Baron Batch gets his turn as the feature tailback for a drive. A few penalties slow the drive, but Gradkowski finds Michael Palmer open down the seam for a long conversion.
Now fully into the second-team portion of the game, the offensive line starts opening some holes for Batch and keeping Gradkowski upright. One pass-rusher finally spins away from his block, but he's too late to the quarterback, who unloads a floater into the end zone. Markus Wheaton just flat-out beats two defensive backs to it.
17-10.
Miles Davis takes it right back.
17-17. Josh Victorian got smoked.
Derek Moye jukes and jives and finds his way to a first down through some defenders.
FOURTH QUARTER
Derek Moye jukes and jives and finds his way to a first down through some defenders. No, saying that twice was not a typo. Alvester Alexander follows that up with a strong run.
Gradkowski tries the rainbow to Wheaton again, but it's too far outside to keep his feet in bounds. Zombocom goes for the sack on Bruce Gradkowski, but in the process he tears the QB's helmet off. No way that isn't getting called. Automatic first down.
Moye tries to hang onto a ball around a defender's arm but there's too much flailing to complete the catch. Gradkowski misses Wheaton, Alexander gets dropped behind the line, and Shaun Suisham put the Steelers back on top. 20-17.
Chase Daniel makes an ill-advised throw to a receiver with a DB all over him. The ball bounces in the air and Jarvis Jones gets under it for the INT. Jones starts his return and gets a few yards before going down. The play comes back on a Josh Victorian pass interference. Jarvis doesn't get up.
Better update that resume.
Jones is eventually helped up and limps to the sideline. No one seems to panic on the Steelers' sideline. The Chiefs make a smart play and go right after Victorian on the next play. That's the kind of thing you try in real life but doesn't make sense in Madden. It's overthrown and Victorian gets away with a little bit of hand-to-hand combat in keeping pace with his man.
Shamarko Thomas finally gets on the field with seven and a half minutes left in the fourth quarter. He misses a chance at a tipped ball because he's focusing on making the big hit, but he does break up a pass on 4th down.
Bruce Gradkowski makes a wicked adjustment to throw sidearm around Zombocom to Derek Moye who takes off for another first down.
This locker isn't getting cleaned out this week.
Gradkowski fires for Wheaton again, but they fail to connect. The DB covering him goes down with an injury. Drew Butler punts and Greg Warren, still in the game, hustles down to make the tackle.
This dude is just a straight-up football player.
Future Walgreens stock clerk Alan Baxter makes a dumb play to fling himself at a player who's already down out of bounds. 15 yards and a great way to lose your job.
Chase Daniel scurries around in the pocket and stays alive for a while but doesn't make anything happen. Shamarko Thomas makes a physical tackle, unfortunately it was on the player who caught a pass two steps ahead of him.
Baxter wins back some good grace with a sack. Vince Williams bats down a pass on third down. Andy Reid sends out his field goal unit out, down 3 with 92 seconds left.
Actual quote: "Oh, don't do that."
Sure enough, the game is knotted at 20.
Reggie Dunn gives us his best effort to avoid prolonging this affair as he takes the kickoff out to the 35. Gradkowski fires for Wheaton again, but Wheaton never even looks for the pass.
Kennard Cox can't get his hands on an interception. Make no mistake, everyone wanted a pick-six right there. The Steelers end up punting and we all wish for Dante Hall to make a dramatic comeback and score a touchdown.
Chase Daniels gets sacked once by everyone in the stadium. The clock expires and dooms us to more awful preseason football.
OVERTIME
The Chiefs win the coin toss. Chase Daniel declares that they want the ball. After the beating Daniel took on the last drive, Ben Roethlisberger responds, "You sure?"
Shamarko Thomas blows up another play. He certainly finds where the action is. If he can learn to read offenses a little bit better, he could be a really special player.
Another lazy call by a line judge dings Vince Williams with a horsecollar tackle. He takes Daniel down by the waist and never grabs anything with the hand on his shoulder. Not a coincidence: That happens on the Kansas City sideline.
Ten or eleven guys converge on Daniel in the pocket. I think I might have even had an assist on that sack. Daniel picks up one first down after another with his legs, not even trying to throw anymore. The Chiefs wind up facing a 4th down in field goal range. They run the ball for the first time in so long that you'd think Larry Johnson was the last guy to carry the ball for the Chiefs.
Remember Larry Johnson? Boy, he fell off the planet, didn't he?
Daniel cocks the gun one more time and and hits some dude on a crossing pattern. It scores a merciful touchdown and the game finally ends.
Notes:
-Markus Wheaton and Shamarko Thomas are going to have to find way to make plays around guys bigger than them. Wheaton, especially, was haunted by his stature all game long.
-Speaking of Wheaton, Bruce Gradkowski likes him a lot. That wasn't always a good thing.
-Felix Jones looked all right. If Le'Veon Bell won't be able to play, he'll make the team, perhaps even forcing out LaRod Stephens-Howling, who has yet to show us anything as he's been sidelined with an injury.
-I have already forgotten who the other kicker was in camp.
