It was destined to be one of the most uncompetitive Sunday Night Football’s of the year.
Without Peyton Manning, the Indianapolis Colts would roll over. They wouldn’t be any match for a Pittsburgh Steelers team looking to build on their complete shutdown of the Seattle Seahawks.
Whether they were riled up by all the ‘one-man team’ chatter, or whether the Steelers took their foot off the gas after a hot start, the Colts defense stepped up in a big way to make this game closer than it ever appeared to be.
Of course, it wasn’t just that the Colts were impressive. The Steelers have some pretty big weaknesses and the Colts were built to expose them. To anyone that watched the game it won’t come a surprise to the one we’ll be starting off with …
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Pittsburgh: Three Performances of Note
Not Getting off Scott Free
One week after Sam Baker had an absolute nightmare in trying to deal with Trent Cole, Jonathan Scott (-8.6) came close to upstaging him with his own inept performance. In fairness, it was never going to be easy dealing with Dwight Freeney, but Scott had almost as many problems in the run game as he did in the passing game, which is amazing when you consider that he gave up two sacks, a hit and two more hurries. In the run game, Scott did nothing useful and got beaten badly at the second level on two occasions that led to his man picking up tackles for short gains.
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Karma
Through James Harrison (+6.6), the Steelers have terrorized left tackles for years. So maybe for the universe to be balanced, the terrible play of Scott had to be balanced out by the fantastic play of Harrison. With every game that passes, the Steelers linebacker is looking more and more like his old self, picking up a sack and three hurries on 29 pass rushes. Still, his best work was most definitely in the run defense, though the Colts deciding that Dallas Clark was the man to neutralize the threat of Harrison didn't help. The former Defensive Player of the Year picked up a tackle for a loss, tackle for no gain and two more for short gains when locked up with the Colts tight end, and also beat Anthony Castonzo on a couple of occasions.
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Head and Shoulders Above the Rest
As good as Harrison was, he may have been upstaged by his teammate, Troy Polamalu (+5.8). While the Colts didn’t always seem to know what they were doing, Polamalu did. One thing that has made him so special, is the fact that he has always had this uncanny ability to time his blitzes on the offense, walking that fine line between perfection and penalty splendidly. This timing helped him pick up two hits and two hurries on his eight pass rushes, and his athletic ability helped him break up two passes, one of which was destined for a touchdown. There isn’t another safety out there who has a knack for the big play like Polamalu, and he chose Sunday Night Football to showcase this once again.
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Indianapolis: Three Performances of Note
Dwight’s Alright
It’s not been the dynamic start to the season that we’re accustomed to that from Dwight Freeney (+9.0). Freeney was a terror all game long, picking up two sacks, one hit and five pressures, in addition to drawing a flag on a nullified play that was yet another pressure. He primarily beat up on Jonathan Scott, but Heath Miller and Doug Legursky both experienced the force of Freeney, as he made his 35 pass rushes count. The Colts almost pulled off a big surprise, and the one player who made that happen was Freeney.
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Feeling the loss of Peyton
It must be hard for Peyton Manning to up in a booth watching his Colts struggle. It must be almost as hard for Dallas Clark (-5.5) to take the field without Manning under center. A regular every down player PMI (Pre Manning Injury), he was only on the field for 73% of Colts offensive snaps. More than that, a regular route runner, he spent 29% of his pass plays being kept in to block. That’s not making the most of him, and as previously mentioned, leaving him one on one in the run game with James Harrison isn’t helping the Colts’ odds.
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Linebackers Stepping Up
Too often, you watch the Colts’ linebackers struggle to either get off blocks, or they do something bad for every good thing that they do. Well maybe this young unit is going to shake that image after a performance that saw all three men finish with positive grades. Believe it or not, the most impressive player of the group, may have been Philip Wheeler (+4.6), who in his two down role saw only 25 snaps but managed to make them count. Wheeler came up quickly on short routes to make a tackle for a loss, one for no gain, and another for a short gain. He also had some success getting off of blocks, beating both members of the left side of Pittsburgh’s offensive line when they got to the second level to make a tackle for a short gain and a tackle for no gain.
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Game Notes
● Ben Roethlisberger only attempted two passes outside the left numbers – he completed none of them.
● The Colts QBs combined to attempt 15 passes of balls 10 yards or more. They only completed three of those (two of which were by Curtis Painter).
● Mike Wallace picked up 4.5 yards per route he ran (32). Reggie Wayne picked up 0.59 (41 routes).
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PFF Game Ball
Dwight Freeney, DE, Indianapolis Colts
So the Colts lost, but how can you not give it to Freeney after the way he imposed himself on this game?
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