Steelers Faithful Invade FedEx Field

by Neal Coolong on Nov 4, 2008 5:00 PM EST

The Steelers held a 23-6 lead behind the juice from the jumper cables QB Byron Leftwich clamped on the Steelers offense. Everyone in the stadium saw that Redskins QB Jason Campbell failed to break the plane of the goal line, except for the referee.

During the review, there was a sense of excitement starting to grow amongst the Steeler faithful. It was going to be overturned, and it was going to be fourth-and-goal from the Steelers 1-yard line.

Dare the fans think it? Three goal line stops on fourth down in two games?

Normally, the home crowd would go silent before such a play. Technically, it did. The question is who was the home crowd?

Stud OLB James Harrison noticed the noise growing, and was feeding off of it. How many times do you see a visiting defensive player asking for more noise from the visiting fans? Harrison waved his arms in the air, asking for more.

Ask and ye shall receive, James. The partisan Steelers crowd cranked it up another notch, and the Steelers dug in. Campbell delivered a nice play fake, and ILB James Farrior made yet another big play, knocking the ball out of TE Todd Yoder's hands, and knocking the word "slump" out of the Steelers' mid-season stretch of games.

Terrible Towels waved proudly at FedEx Field, something Redskins head coach Jim Zorn may have remembered from when he was the Seahawks quarterbacks coach. Ford Field in Detroit became Heinz Field West for Super Bowl XL, and the Steelers again had home field advantage despite playing in their road white jerseys. The Steelers defense shut Zorn's Seahawks down in that game, allowing 10 points. They shut down Zorn's new QB protoge, Jason Campbell, and allowed just six points - none in the second half, and both their field goals were the result of a short field.

Defensive Coordinator Dick LeBeau has this defense playing with the vital "us against the world" mentality, and the fan presence on the road only encourages that. That spirit runs deeper than injured starters (Brett Keisel, Casey Hampton, Deshea Townsend, Bryant McFadden, Ryan Clark, so far this season).

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Comments

Saying “none in the second half” is kind of silly. Why don’t we tell it like it is and say none in the last 55 minutes?

We all know they could have kicked some field goals, but they didn’t and that is that.

by steelguy99 on Nov 4, 2008 5:05 PM EST reply actions

I don't know that there is much of a "spiritual" aspect the success..

…seems more due to cold blooded, calculated, technique, concocted by Dick Lebeau and coached to a high level of execution in the players he has on hand. Similar to what Bill Belichek is able to do with the New England Patriots on both sides of the ball for as long as he has been head coach there.

by robert ethan on Nov 4, 2008 5:24 PM EST reply actions