Plays of the Year: Sammie Coates torches Bengals secondary
Steel City Underground presents “Plays of the Year” featuring the tops runs, catches, hits and everything else in-between for the Steelers 2016 season.
It was a wet and sloppy at Heinz Field for the Pittsburgh Steelers 2017 home opener against AFC North foe Cincinnati. The game often resembled the usual slugfest of smashmouth football, with a power running game and hard hits.
Ben Roethlisberger had found success in spots throughout the game, but overall, had failed to hook up with Sammie Coates on several occasions. One of those passes was intercepted by Bengals CB Dre Kirkpatrick, the second of Ben’s turnovers on the day. Another deep pass failed to connect with Coates to start the third quarter and the Bengals were still within reach of taking the lead, as the Steelers hung onto their own by a margin of 10-6 halfway through the third quarter.
That’s when Big Ben would finally hit his intended target for another big gain. The Steelers would score their first seven points following an earlier 44-yard Coates catch which set up a Xavier Grimble touchdown two plays later.
However, with Cincy still a threat, the Steelers had to take matters into their own hands. Roethlisberger would step back to pass, and connect on this precision play with Sammie for 53-yards.
On the very next play, Jesse James would haul in a nine-yard touchdown pass, as the Steelers went up 17-6… and never looked back from that lead the rest of the game.
