I have to say, I was skeptical. 

And it wasn’t because I thought the Chargers were a great football team. Rather, having watched our beloved Steelers play for 14 of the 16 weeks this year (I missed the last two games because I was traveling) I thought that they had a good chance of blowing this one. 

What’s more I was sure that the storyline would be: "lousy performance by the O-line wastes a heroic game by the defense."

Instead, the story of the game was the dominating play of the O-line against a solid front 7.

via static.nfl.com

Not since  I agreed with Alan Faneca about not wanting to see a rookie quarterback under center have I been this happy to be wrong.

Let me preface this by saying, that I think that our line play this year has been downright miserable. 

Just to put it into perspective, Kerry Collins was sacked 8 times in 16 games this season.  Ben Roethlisberger was sacked 8 times during the Philly game.  This unit has allowed 139 sacks in the past three years. That’s not bad, that’s absurd. I don't have the time to do the full research, but I think it borders on historic.  

Many have tried to lay that on Big Ben.  I disagree completely.  Watching Ben in the pocket today confirmed my feeling that it was never Ben's fault. Ben is a strong, elusive QB who doesn't give up sacks easily.  Its true that he is not quick to throw the ball away, but that is partly because he so good at making the first guy miss. 

I honestly think that we have simply forgotten what its like to see Ben deal with normal pressure  - say one guy breaking free or a pocket beginning to collapse. That's because this this O-line specializes in jailbreak sacks.  I can't count the number of times over the past three years that Ben had 2 or 3 guys coming at him completely untouched. 

But as we saw today given a little protection Ben is a great QB.    The guy has a ridiculous arm, good accuracy and he yes, he is actually really hard to sack.  

Of course, one of the big reasons Ben had more time to throw was a return of the run game.  . It was like somebody had fired up the Delorion and sent us back to 2005.  42 Rushes? 36 Minute time of possession?  Actual holes to run through? For a moment I thought Jerome Bettis was going to rumble back out on the field.

As much as it pains me to say, credit here goes to Bruce Arians. I am guessing that he went into the secret vault underneath Heinz field, dusted off an unused game plan by Whiz and, holding his nose,  followed it.  

Congrats to him and congrats to our O-line.