Pittsburgh Steelers-Oakland Raiders Recap

It was a glorious Sunday in Pittsburgh as the Steelers defeated the Oakland Raiders 35-3. In full disclosure, I missed much of the first half, so I didn’t see the Steelers trailing 3-0 after the first quarter and some of the early penalties. Here are my thoughts on what I did see:

- Ben Roethlisberger must have watched Michael Vick put up insane stats against the Washington Redskins last Monday night. How else can you explain Roethlisberger RUNNING for 55 yards and a touchdown to go with 275 passing yards and 3 TDs?

- When was the last time you saw an NFL player ejected from a game? (I remember a pre-game fight between Joey Porter as a Steeler and William Green of the Browns leading to both players getting ejected.) Well, congratulations to Richard Seymour for accomplishing this by giving Roethlisberger a nice cheap shot slap to the face?

- By the way, I loved the way the referee called the penalty. “Number 93 has ejected himself from the game for his actions.” Sure, he initially got the players number wrong, but I love the way he phrased this. I’m going to use this line the next time I give a red card in a soccer game.

- Mike Wallace is fast.

- I really hope Snoop Dogg got paid handsomely for appearing in this Pepsi Max commercial. ("I’m up to my knees in zero calories. Pepsi to the max so let’s drink all of these." Worst rap ever?)



- James Harrison hit Raiders' QB Jason Campbell in the third quarter just as he released the ball. It was not a head shot and Harrison did not go at Campbell’s knees. However, Harrison was still called for a personal foul, apparently, for driving Campbell into the ground. Campbell is 6’5” and 230 pounds. How else is James Harrison supposed to hit him?

- The overall rushing yards for the Steelers (33 carries for 162 yards, or 4.9 yards per carry) looked pretty good. However, the Steelers need to do better with Rashard Mendenhall, their #1 running back, running for only 59 yards on 23 carries and a long run of only 9 yards.

- With the Steelers winning 28-3 late in the fourth quarter, why was Roethlisberger still in the game? Sure, for fantasy football purposes I was happy that he threw a late touchdown pass to Isaac Redman, but there was no reason for him to be on the field with the game out of hand.

- The Steelers defense played great by giving up only 3 points and 182 total yards. Six sacks, two interceptions, a fumble recovery and allowing the Raiders to convert only 3 of 14 third down conversions is definitely not too shabby.

- Congratulations to Shaun Suisham for going 5-for-5 on extra point conversions! Maybe he can spell his first name correctly next week.

- Next week, the Steelers face Steve Johnson and the Buffalo Bills. How did Johnson not know that he would get fined for wearing this?



- By the way, check out the Steve Johnson press conference on the Buffalo Bills website. (The link takes you to the press conference page. You actually have to click on the Steve Johnson press conference once you get to the site.) It’s nice of him to dress up for the occasion.

Finally, last call to enter my new contest to win a $75 gift certificate to use at any of the 200+ CSN Stores websites. All you need to do is post a comment on the "Brand New Contest" post by Monday at 10pm to enter.