2016 Recall: Steelers stack road wins with Thanksgiving victory in Indy
After dropping four straight games, the Pittsburgh Steelers rebounded against the Cleveland Browns to bring their record to an even 5-5 on the season.
Next up was another road game, on a short week, on a holiday (Thanksgiving) against the Indianapolis Colts. There were questions about whether the Steelers were bouncing back and if they might drop another disappointing loss on the road as they did with away games in Philadelphia and Miami earlier in the season.
The Colts ended up posing less of a challenge to the Steelers, though it wasn’t due to not having QB Andrew Luck active. Backup Colts quarterback Scott Tolzien threatened to crack the Steelers D several times, which made fans go berserk about whether this team could contend for a playoff spot.
However, the offense was running on all cylinders even with the short week to prepare. Ben Roethlisberger posted a 146.0 QB rating on only 20 pass attempts. His three touchdown passes all went to Antonio Brown, while Le’Veon Bell also added 142 all-purpose yards.
Pittsburgh jumped out to a 14-0 lead behind those Killer B’s plus the emergence of tight end Ladarius Green, who added catches of 32 and 35 yards in the game.
Indy still made a game of it before the half. The usually reliable Adam Vinatieri missed a 52-yard field goal attempt when the game was still 7-0 in favor of Pittsburgh. The Steelers climbed to 14-0 but the Colts responded with a touchdown drive following poor special teams coverage on both the kickoff and a fake punt play on fourth down which allowed the Steelers opponent to close the gap to 14-7.
The Steelers marched down the field again in the second quarter to take a 21-7 lead but the Colts had another strong drive which got them within a yard of the end zone, but two big plays by Sean Davis and Mike Mitchell held the Steelers lead to 14 points when the teams went to the locker room.
The Steelers offense sputtered to start the second half as the Colts once again threatened with four downs within the Pittsburgh six-yard line. Mike Mitchell made yet another big tackle holding Tolzien a yard short of the goal line, and Pittsburgh’s defense shut down the Colts offense on fourth down again.
The Steelers would chew some time off of the clock before giving the ball back, which Tolzien would end up doing as well, getting picked off by Steelers S Mike Mitchell. Pittsburgh capitalized with another Big Ben to Antonio Brown TD, their third of the game.
William Gay would pick off Tolzien too, as the Steelers started pulling their starters and prepared to finally eat their turkey legs which were left to warm while fans enjoyed their meals earlier.
Final score 28-7, as the Steelers improved to 5-4 on the season with their second straight win.
Play of the Game
There were a number of plays which could’ve been listed here, but for the sake of leaving out candidates for “Plays of the Year” I selected AB’s third touchdown on the evening, which cemented the Steelers lead and put the game out of the Colts reach.
With about five and a half minutes remaining in the game, Ben Roethlisberger went deep on third down again, as his near-perfect QB rating, and Brown’s record day went unblemished.
