In the past three and a half weeks, the Steelers looked like a team that had forgotten to play football, but it looks like something must have changed at Sunday break, because the team that came out of the second half against the Colts looked like the Steelers team that started to season 11-0.
Based on how the Steelers attack had been playing for the past few weeks, the prospect of Pittsburgh overcoming a deficit of 24-7 in the third quarter seemed unlikely, but that was exactly what happened in a wild game that ended with the Steelers winning AFC North title in a 28-24 victory.
Whatever Ben Roethlisberger said at halftime must have worked, because after almost a month of fighting, the attack finally played competent football in the second half.
It was a crazy week on Sunday and the playoff races are coming to an end. Will Brinson and the Pick Six Podcast Superfriends break everything; listen below and be sure to sign up for daily NFL benefits.
A hit on Big Ben in recent weeks is that he hasn’t been able to launch a deep, accurate ball. That was one of the many problems that seemed to be resolved in the second half against the Colts and there is no better evidence than this 39-yard touchdown pass to Diontae Johnson, where Roethlisberger threw a perfect ball that traveled 47 yards in the air.
Roethlisberger then outdid himself with another impressive deep touchdown in the second half. This time, the 25-yard pass went to JuJu Smith-Schuster and the ball traveled about 35 yards in the air.
The Smith-Schuster move came just under eight minutes from time and ended up providing Pittsburgh with victory points. It was also Roethlisberger’s third touchdown pass in a performance in which he completed 34 of 49 passes for 342 yards.
When the deep ball is working for Roethlisberger, the attack is almost impossible to stop. In the past few weeks, all the opposing defense has had to do is focus on the short crossing routes. If you could stop it, you could end the Steelers attack. However, this is not the case when the deep ball is working. If the Steelers manage to take advantage of that momentum until the playoffs, they could become the Super Bowl contender that we all thought they were five weeks ago.
Speaking of playoffs, the Steelers will have some interesting decisions to make towards Week 17, especially with the division already won. On the one hand, if Mike Tomlin decides to rest his starters, you can’t blame him and that’s because this team has a lot of players who would need a week off after a season when the Steelers’ goodbye was interrupted by COVID. On the other hand, with the offense finally synchronized, it may not be worth it to risk giving them a week off and getting them out of the wild card round looking rusty.
Okay, let’s see the scores for all games from week 16. If you’re looking for a deeper dive into New Orleans’ big victory over the Vikings that was played on Christmas Day, click here.
Tampa Bay 47-7 over Detroit (Saturday)
San Francisco 20-12 over Arizona (Saturday)
Miami 26-25 over Las Vegas (Saturday)
Kansas City 17-14 over Atlanta
Chicago 41-17 on Jacksonville
Cincinnati 37-31 Houston
Pittsburgh 28-24 on Indianapolis
Colts-Steelers Notes by Bryan DeArdo (Love the notes? I hate the notes? Let him know on Twitter.)
Baltimore 27-13 on the NY Giants
Giants-Ravens notes by Tyler Sullivan (Loves the notes? I hate the notes? Let him know on Twitter.)
NY Jets 23-16 over Cleveland
Browns-Jets notes by Josh Edwards (Love the notes? Hate the notes? Let him know on Twitter.)
LA Chargers 19-16 on Denver
Dallas 37-17 over Philadelphia
Eagles-Cowboys Notes by Patrik Walker (Love the notes? Hate the notes? Let him know on Twitter.)
Seattle 20-9 on LA Rams
Notes from Rams-Seahawks by Jeff Kerr (Love the notes? Hate the notes? Let him know on Twitter.)
Carolina 20-13 on Washington
Panthers-Washington notes by Jordan Dajani (Love the notes? Hate the notes? Let him know on Twitter.)
Green Bay 40-14 over Tennessee
Titans-Packers notes by Cody Benjamin (Love the notes? I hate the notes? Let him know on Twitter.)