Pittsburgh Steelers win 24-17 against the New York Giants
Saturday’s game against the New York Giants proved that the Pittsburgh Steelers could hold their own when the regular season begins even without their starting quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. Ben had been handed a six game suspension for violating the league’s personal conduct policy in April this year. He was however cleared to play the preseason games.
Ben was suspended after sexual harassment charges against him were dropped. The charges came after a nightclub incident involving a 20-year-old college student and the crowd had neither forgiven nor forgotten the incident. Ben was still happy to be back on the field. In fact he was completely unfazed. “A lot of nerves, butterflies, excitement, but to get back out there with the guys and get between the lines and the lights and the away stadium; it was awesome,” Ben said. He played down the booing from New York fans saying that it happens when they are on the road.
The Steelers were at an obvious advantage against the Giants after their game against the New York Jets. Giants quarterback Eli Manning was sidelined after sustaining a head injury that required 12 stitches. Jim Sorgi was also unable to play due to a shoulder injury that left only Rhett Bomar to lead the Giant’s offence. A Giants victory with the serious handicap was unlikely however their defence was still in good enough shape to give the Steelers a rough time.
Bomar is certainly a capable quarterback but the weight of having the entire offense on one persons shoulder just got to him. Bomar threw 167 yards while getting sacked twice and giving away an interception. The Giants coach, however, was not at all disappointed. He knew that Bomar was under a great deal of pressure which he dealt with like a true professional and ‘hung in there.’ “He was tough. He got hit a number of times. I’m sure he’s going to be sore tomorrow,” Tom Coughlin said.
Of the three Steelers quarterbacks it was Leftwich and Dixon who stole the limelight and not Ben. The only points that came off Ben’s drive was a field goal. He was also intercepted once. The interception came when Ben threw a deep pass at Mike Wallace to be intercepted by cornerback Corey Webster.
Leftwich on the other hand had 95 yards including an unbelievable 68 yard touchdown pass to Wallace in the first quarter. Dixon wasn’t half bad with 82 yards in 7 of 8 passes completed. Leftwich would be starting the first 6 games for the Steelers while Ben served his 6 games suspension. The suspension could be tuned down to four games but no less. Leftwich and Dixon’s performances just proved that even without Ben the Steelers could do more than just survive.
Giants defence in the end was unable to hold down the three quarterback offence. Giant’s defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka said that they struggled to adapt the varying styles of the Steelers quarterbacks. “They are three very different guys, so it is hard to game plan for a team like that,” Mathias said.
This was the second preseason game for the Giants and the first in which the Giants were the home team at the New Meadowlands Stadium. While the Giants had their disadvantages on Saturday, one contest that was evenly matched was between Ike Taylor and Hakeem Nicks.
In the fourth play of the game, Hakeem was blocking Taylor on the 49 yard line when suddenly tempers flared. The two exchanged intense blows before being pulled away from each other. The scuffle didn’t escape the attention of the officials and both men were ejected from the game. Nick said that he had never been ejected from the game until Saturday night. According to Nick’s version of events, while he was blocking Taylor there was some shoving until all of a sudden Taylor started throwing punches at him and he struck back in an effort to defend himself. “I'm disappointed because I let my coaches and teammates down,” Nick said in a statement regarding the ejection.
Tags: