Thursday Night Football Afterword: Titans vs Steelers

Steelers fans packed Heinz Field LP Field well before the game even began, but their support apparently wasn’t enough as the Steelers came off an important win against Philadelphia with a 26-23 loss to the Tennessee Titans.

It is easy to point the finger and lay the blame on Ben Roethlisberger’s interception near the end of the first half when the Steelers were threatening to score, which allowed the Titans to drive back and extend their lead to 16-10 at halftime with a field goal. But it isn’t as simple as that; it never is.

The Steelers scored on each of their first three possessions in the second half, giving them a 23-16 lead. Their defense fall apart on the next Tennessee drive, giving up first downs on 2^nd & 10, 3^rd & 8, and 3^rd & 10. Then, on 3^rd & goal, they gave up a touchdown pass from Matt Hasselbeck to Kenny Britt that tied the game.

The Steelers began their drive with a little over four minutes left in the game. They picked up a few first downs, but after stretching the field for the first time all season in the first half, the Steelers tried to be too methodical down the stretch. Short gains ultimately stalled the drive with just under a minute to play and an opportunity to take the lead on a 54-yard field goal by Shaun Suisham, who was perfect on the year but had never made a field goal of over 52 yards, which he had matched earlier in the game.

His kick was perfectly on line, right in line with the middle of the crossbar, but wound up about a yard or two short. Hasselbeck and the Titans took over on their own 45 and easily drove to the Pittsburgh 25 and with three second left Rob Bironas knocked in a 40-yard field goal to win the game.

During the game, Roethlisberger passed Terry Bradshaw for the Steelers all-time passing yards record, but I’m sure he would have traded that in for a win. With the loss, Pittsburgh is now two games behind the Ravens and a game behind Cincinnati, both of whom can gain an extra half-game with wins over Dallas and Cleveland, respectively, on Sunday.

Tennessee didn’t help their cause all that much with the win, they are still way behind the Texans and have two more losses than the Colts, but we’ve seen teams catch a spark after beating a good team, and the Titans are not as terrible as some people would think. This is probably the most dangerous ‘bad team’ in the AFC, and Thursday night was not the first time we’ve seen that this year.

As always, thank you for reading. My next post will be on Monday when I publish both of my Sunday Football Afterwords. Follow me on Twitter @PuffontheNFL and show your support for my blog by liking its Facebook Page.

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Have a fantastic weekend!