Steelers 34 Browns 7

by Peter Bean on Sep 9, 2007 11:03 PM EDT in News

It was only a win over a broken Cleveland Browns team, but my oh my what a fine way to usher in the Mike Tomlin era. Pittsburgh outgtained the Browns by 140 yards, including a dominant 206-46 advantage in rushing yards.

Ben Roethlisberger was solid, especially in the red zone, completing 12 of his 23 passes for 161 yards and 4 TDs.

Much more reaction to this in the coming days (Blitzburgh's been at a wedding), but for now, we congratulate Mike Tomlin on this impressive win and celebrate this team finishing plays and drives in ways that eluded the 2006 team.

I wasn't able to see the game in my area, so we're relying on you guys to chime in with game thoughts. Most impressive player on offense? Defense? Area the team may have improved in the most since last season? Concerns heading forward?

Go Steelers!

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Ben would

have had an even better day if there weren't so many dropped passes. A couple were his fault, but man there were a bunch of them. All in all the team looked great, the defense was a monster out there and sp teams looked good, with Seppy downing several punts inside the twenty.

by steelerark on Sep 9, 2007 11:50 PM EDT reply actions

Entirely agreed.

The defense looked fantastic, though I don't know how much that says against the Browns.

It's nice to see Ben spread the ball around; there were four touchdowns from 4 different receivers, including the two tight ends. The days of double-covering Hines Ward should be over. Hopefully, they'll continue to incorporate Heath Miller into the offense as well.

On a side note, did Jeff Reed's kickoffs get substantially better in the off-season? He booted several to the back of the end zone yesterday.

by HinesField on Sep 10, 2007 8:45 AM EDT up reply actions

I can't believe...

we let the Browns get 7 points...we could have definitely shut them out!

Just kidding. Couldn't have asked for a better opener. The biggest + -- NO INTERCEPTIONS!

by Cotter on Sep 10, 2007 1:36 PM EDT reply actions

My positives and negatives

It's hard to find many negatives but just to nit-pick here's my thoughts:
---The running game got off to a slow start and the backs only averaged 4.13 yards per carry. The team average was over 5, thanks to nearly 50 yards in two carries from Wilson and Holmes.
---There were too many drops, especially in the during the 2 quarter when Ben threw 9 straight incompletions (I counted at least 4 drops during that stretch).
---I also counted the entire second quarter as a negative. We had five drives and the worst starting position was PIT 39. Those 5 drives consisted of four punts and the Parker fumble.

The positives were pretty obvious:
---The pass rush was great with 6 sacks and an equally impressive showing was the protection for Big Ben as Cleveland only got one sack.
---Holmes is gonna have a great year. He is simply explosive.
---Robo Punter was impressive with 4 of his 6 punts downed inside the 20. So his average didn't look good but most of his punts were with a short field.
---Big Ben had a good if not great day. He did miss a couple of throws but I'll chalk that up to being the first game of the year. If the drops had been caught or even half of them caught his numbers would look alot better.

All in all, this is about what I expected to see. They looked really good but there were plenty of areas that they can improve.

by cgolden on Sep 10, 2007 1:53 PM EDT reply actions