It doesn’t matter how you win games, as long as you win, right?
Well that seemed to be the opinion of most of the Steelers players as they squeaked by one of the worst teams in the NFL, the Jacksonville Jaguars, 17-13 at Heinz Field.
“Style points? No style points when it’s a ‘W’,” said LB James Farrior. “Every win looks beautiful. Ask the teams that lost today.”
The Steelers dominated the first half, outgaining the Jaguars 315-68 and taking a 17-3 lead after the first two quarters.
“We came out and scored points and should have scored the third time down, we had a little miscommunication, but we did a lot of things that we wanted to,” said Ben Roethlisberger.
Rashard Mendenhall, coming off a hamstring injury last week, broke a 68 yard run in the second quarter and finished with 146 yards rushing and a touchdown.
“We have been getting better in the run game,” said Mendenhall. “As the season goes on, you want to be moving forward instead of backward and the offensive line did a good job of controlling the line of scrimmage today. It was a good effort.”
But the second half was a totally different story.
The Steelers had just 55 total yards in the second half, while the Jaguars were able to move the ball and score 10 points against the Steelers defense.
“Sometimes those things happen,” said DE Brett Keisel on the Jaguars resurgence in the second half. “You have to give them credit for not laying down and not dying.”
The Jaguars were able to successfully run the ball as Maurice Jones-Drew finished the day just short of 100 yards as he rushed for 96.
Roethlisberger finished the game with 200 yards passing and a 28 yard touchdown pass to Mike Wallace in the second quarter.
“We felt we could have had a very explosive, productive day offensively both running and throwing the ball, but it’s just frustrating that it didn’t finish up that way,” said Roethlisberger.
With the win, the Steelers improved to 4-2 on the season, 1/2 game behind AFC North Division leading Baltimore Ravens and tied for second place with the 4-2 Cincinnati Bengals.
The Steelers travel to Arizona to face the Cardinals next weekend and then have back to back games at home against New England and Baltimore.
“We’ve done some nice things, but due to circumstances for one reason or another, we haven’t been tested like we will be,” said Head Coach Mike Tomlin. “The big challenges lie ahead and we need to prepare for them.”
Notes: S Troy Polamalu left the game late in the 4th quarter with concussion-like symptoms, but was just precautionary… The Steelers improved to 3-1 this season against AFC South teams… Hines Ward passed Michael Irvin for 19th place all-time in receiving yards in the NFL… With the win, Mike Tomlin notched his 52nd win as the Steelers Head Coach, moving into 3rd place all-time in franchise history (Chuck Noll – 209 wins, Bill Cowher – 161 wins)
Image Source – (Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)
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