Meow Mix: Steelers Win

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This game was all about people playing for their jobs; not just their jobs with the Steelers, but with other teams that were probably scouting the game last night too. The Steelers delivered touchdowns in all 3 phases of the game, with rookies Stefan Logan and Isaac Redman delivering scores in the first half and second-year man Ryan Mundy sealing the deal. The Steelers now have the difficult decision of deciding upon their 53-man roster. They can also keep 5 players on the practice squad, but those 5 have to clear waivers, which means other teams have a shot to pick them up. Given what some young players, like Isaac Redman for example, have shown this preseason, it's unlikely they would clear waivers.

This recap is a little rushed because we wanted to try to get it up before the cuts were announced (which obviously didn't happen).

Game Recap

Carolina won the toss. Houghs has fantastic burgers, particularly if you like spicy food. The Cowboy Mike burger (named after their excellent chef) has jalapenos, pepperjack cheese, and cajun spices. If you're not that adventureous, the Benko Burger has bananna peppers.

DeAngelo Williams charged up the middle to get things rolling. Carolina is a solid running team, but we knew this coming in. Delhomme goes deep on 2nd and short but Moose can't hang on. Fox Trot shuts the door on Williams on 3rd down.

Stefan Logan fields the punt with 5 guys bearing down on him. Like a dude shot out of a cannon, Logan explodes through a seam, makes one move, blows past the punter and is in the end zone before you can blink.

7-0

I dominate my Cowboy Mike burger during the commercial break.

Second team defense comes out before the offense even touches the field.

Fox Trot comes through with another big play as he sacks Delhomme. Carolina's 1st team offense can't do anything against our second team defense. The coaching staff has seen enough from Logan, and sends Joe Burnett out for the punt return. Fair catch.

First team offense comes out for their only series, runs the motif offense, and punts.

Carolina's 3rd string back, Mike Goodson, a rookie out of Texas A&M who had a very impressive performance, came out with a few solid runs. The defense holds and forces the Cats into 3rd and long, when Arnold Harrison bull-rushes through a runningback, swats the ball out of the QBs hand and falls on the fumble for a huge turnover.

Homestead Charlie came in for his series, and has an easy job of it as the runningbacks carry him into field goal range. Frank the Tank makes a solid run on 3rd and short to keep things going. Batch finds McDonald to get down to the 15. Then Isaac Redman takes over. Redman reels off 5 yards to get down to the 10 and a first down. Then he plows through the Panthers defense and just refuses to be denied of the end zone and leaves the Carolina defense battered, scarred, and in a 14-0 hole.

14-0

We really want to make the easy jump from "Isaac" to "Ike", but we think that might be because of our fond memories of former Pirates centerfielder Tike Redman.

Isaac Redman > Tike Redman

Goodson takes over and churns out some solid carries to move Carolina across the 50 as the quarter expires.

Carolina had 9 1/2 minutes of possession in the quarter and went out of it down 14-0. Great performance by the Steelers.

Second Quarter

With the ball at the Steelers 32, Carolina gets stuck in another 3rd and long, and come up 1 yard shy. Rather than putting points on the board, John Fox elects to go for it, and Goodson doesn't even come close to the sticks as Arnold Harrison and Ryan Mundy stick him for a loss.

Mike Reilly comes out to run the show for the rest of the game. The only excitement on this series came on an end-around to Stefan Logan for 14 yards. Superman kills his average by having to kick from near midfield after he boomed the first one for 52 yards.

Goodson comes in and literally carries the team on his back down the field. Carolina puts together an 8-minute drive that takes the clock inside of the two-minute warning as they drive 0ver 70 yards down the field. With second and goal from the 2 after the 2-minute warning, Carolina goes play-action, but pressure from Bruce Davis forces an incompletion. On 3rd down, Goodson gets drilled in the backfield by Steve McLendon and coughs up the ball. Donovan Woods scoops it up and scampers upfield then for some unknown reason slides to the ground across the 30. He had plenty of blockers in front of him. Maybe he ran out of air, maybe he pulled a muscle, maybe the coaches were telling him to get down so Reilly could practice the 2-minute offense. Either way, a scoring opportunity was missed.

Isaac Redman gets a few carries, and the Steelers seem poised to go 3-and-out, but a personal foul penalty on Carolina gives us new life across midfield. After a sack on first down, Redman gets some yards back. The Steelers call timeout with 10 seconds left to give Reilly a hail mary shot. It falls to the ground with 1 second on the clock. Rather than throwing it deep, they call a draw and Redman scampers for 27 meaningless yards as the clock expires.

Halftime

Jalapeno Poppers

$1 off appetizers at Hough's on Thursdays.
Karaoke guy shows up and starts setting up.

Third Quarter

Logan rips off another good return to get things going. Isaac, not to be called Ike, Redman has a few nice runs before a 3rd and long sack forces the Steelers to punt. 49-yarder for Superman.

Matt Moore, who actually started a few games for Carolina a few years ago when they were worse than Dane Cook's standup, led the team down the field against our 3rd string defense. The drive was capped off by Dwayne Jarrett's leaping catch down the sidelines at the 3. Two plays later, some schmuck jumps over the pile into the end zone.

14-7

Flashes of last year's game against Carolina go through your head when John Fox tried to play for overtime, only to have Dennis Dixon lead the team down the field for the game-winning field goal. Overtime in the preseason is worse than the Power Rangers movie. Don't even pretend it was good. Ivan Ooze was a joke.

After a touchback, Mike Reilly comes out ready to prevent overtime. He connects with Tyler Grisham and Shaun McDonald for 20 and 27-yarders to move the troops into Carolina territory. Stefan Logan gets the call on a reverse and scampers for 13 yards to get close to field goal range. Justin Vincent gets the call and plunges for 8 and 5 to get down to the 12. On first down, Vincent tries to go over the left side but coughs up the ball and the Panthers recover. If this was the regular-season, that would be vomit-inducing. But it's the preseason, so it wasn't.

On the second play from scrimage, Matt Moore throws up a terrible pass and Ryan Mundy strafes across and snags it. With all green in front of him, Mundy is able to do the Cha Cha Slide into the end zone. Big play for Ryan, out of Woodland Hills High School and WVU...we hope to see him on the roster tomorrow.

21-7

The demoralized Panthers come out with their tail between their legs, but not going down without a fight. Moore throws the ball all around the field as they start to pick their way down the field.

Fourth Quarter

The Panthers eventually get as far as the Steelers 13, but a sack by Ra'Shon "Sonny" Harris forces them back, and a great tackle by Patrick Bailey on 3rd down forces the Cats into a field goal.

21-10

The rest of the game was about as exciting as All That after Jamie Lynn Spears joined the cast. But since we're a Steelers blog, it's our obligation to cover it.

Vincent and Redman tag-teamed to move the ball, but a 3rd down incompletion forced a punt. Superman for 53.

He's just killing the ball. Huge difference between him and Lob Wedge.

Carolina went 3-and-out capped off by Andy Schantz's sack on second down.

He's probably not making the team, but gotta give him a shout out for the solid play.

The Steelers respond, in what seems like a perfect situation for the motif offense, with run-run-RUN-punt. Shocker.

People start singing Karaoke during the commercial break, so not much attention was paid to Carolina's drive. They moved the ball a little bit, then the Steelers defense held. Mundy picked up a sack to go with his pick-6 somewhere in there, leaving him a fumble recovery short of the defensive hat trick. McLendon picked up a sack on 4th down to seal the deal.

Your team sucks.

Victory formation.

Preseason over.

Players of the Game
Offensive Game Ball: Isaac Redman
Defensive Game Ball: Ryan Mundy

Honorable Mentions:
Stefan Logan
Daniel Sepulveda
Steve McLendon
Keenan Lewis
Shaun McDonald
Arnold Harrison

Mr. Yuck Sticker of the Game

Pale Ales
I know they're "hip" and "cool" right now, but I'm sorry, they taste like ass in a bottle. Dark beers are where it's at. Give me a Yuengling Black and Tan any day.

Highlights:


Final Thoughts:

• If you live in Pittsburgh, and haven't been to Hough's, you need to go. It's a beer-drinker's paradise. They have over 200 beers in house. Score.
• Bring on the Titans
• Roster cuts come tomorrow, there are rumors floating around today, but nothing concrete
• Stefan Logan makes the team. We're excited about what he can bring in the regular season.
• Some jagoff from NBC asked Coach in his press conference if it was a big game because it was at night and on NBC. Coach responded: "I like to think they're all big games because we're in them." That's why he's a top 3 coach in the league right now (Top 1 in our book).
• No, Hough's is not sponsoring our blog, we just really like the place.
• Our second team defense was better than Carolina's first-team offense.
• Goodson looked good for Carolina, he might be a sleeper if Williams or Stewart gets hurt this year.
• Preseason is over. Get your mind in regular season mode.
• 7 days to Tennessee.