Monday Night YAWn: Steelers Lose

 13

 24

In the lead-up to the game, you could tell that RGIII was going to be the most talked-about non-player in an NFL game since the season that Peyton Manning missed.

The Steelers won the toss and took the ball.

The offense came out with the clear intention of running the ball. Bell got 4 carries then got hurt on a pass play. No word on the extent of his injury, it's his foot. Punt.

Kirk Cousins completes a couple play-action passes. Nothing really happening against the first team defense.

New year, new line, same graphic. Ben gets sacked then Ryan Kerrigan makes a leaping play to tip a swing pass and pick it off and take it to the house.

0-7

Gruden says something about Kerrigan having a career game. Too bad it doesn't count for anything.

Also too bad the Steelers don't have someone named Harding on their team to take Kerrigan out.

Ben converts a 3rd down with a nice pass to Sanders but it gets brought back on some penalty on the O-line. The Steelers run a give-up draw play on 3rd down because they're more concerned with the punting battle than with their offense.

LaMarr Woodley demolishes Cousins on 3rd down.

The first team offense got things moving when Ben did his Ben thing and kept a play alive then hit AB down the sideline for a big gain. A late hit on the Skins bought us an extra 15 yards. Ben continued to be Ben and hit Paulson deep in the red zone.

Second Quarter

Penalties on Pouncey and Adams derail any chances to find the end zone, but Suisham puts us on the board.

3-7

Kirk Cousins tries to do his RGIII impression but Timmons comes from the other side of the field and takes him down on the sideline, injuring Cousins. Rex Grossman comes in and is Rex Grossman.

Gradkowski takes over with the first team O-line who still haven't figured out how to block Kerrigan. 

Strip sack. Washington ball.

Remember that time Jarvis Jones ran a 4.9 and fell to the Steelers at #17? That was pretty awesome. So was him blowing through the line and making the running back drop a deuce and the ball all in one motion.

Jarvis Jones needs to start. Period.

In the span of two plays we get Good Dwyer and Bad Dwyer. He rips off a 23-yarder to get the Steelers to midfield then fumbles on the next play. Back and forth we go.

Grossman tries to go deep and Ike takes a bad PI penalty. It was a pretty clear penalty on the replay, Ike held him up. After a touchdown is nullified by penalty, Grossman throws one up and Leonard Hankerson who couldn't catch a cold last season makes a one-handed leaping grab over William Gay.

3-14

One of those nights, I guess.

The offense starts moving with the help of two penalties to the Redskins then Gradkowski hits Manny Sanders down the middle to get into the red zone. Nothing much else happens. Suisham.

6-14

Grossman takes over with a minute and two timeouts and hits two deep passes against the second team defense to move the Skins into field goal range. Not a good way to end the half.

6-17

Halftime

How bout those Buccos?

Third Quarter

Not much happening to start the second half. The Steelers O-line continued to be awful. Rex Grossman was Rex Grossman and threw an interception. Damon Cromartie-Smith with the pick, somewhat redeeming himself for the missed block on special teams last week.

Landry Jones came in and handed off to Dwyer a few times. That was the end of that. The teams continued trading punts.

Jones was finally allowed to pass on 3rd and 10 and hit Jamie McCoy who made a slick little cut to pick up a first down. Jones took the opportunity to air it out hit Wheaton down the sideline for a huge gain.

Wheaton blew past the corner and it would've been an easy 6 if he didn't have to slow down to catch the ball. Good to see. Derek Moye made a catch to get it to 3rd and 1 but the backup line and 4th string running back couldn't convert.

Fourth Quarter

Tomlin goes balls to the wall and goes for it on 4th and 1 in a preseason game at the 10 yard line. Because, why not. Jones goes play-action and hits Moye for the first down, but the pride of Rochester High School makes a spin and stretches into the end zone for the score.

First offensive touchdown of the preseason.

13-17

Pat White came in at quarterback for the Redskins to run some read option. The Steelers clearly weren't ready for it, but it's preseason so whatever. Shamarknado came flying in like a bullet and obliterated a running back, causing a fumble.

Guy Whimper takes a back-breaking penalty on 3rd down to nullify a first down catch by Wheaton.

Some more boring preseason football of teams trading punts. Seventh round pick Nick Williams rings up a sack. Landry couldn't really get anything going for the offense.

Pat White decides to start running the ball and the Steelers don't have much of an answer. Roy Helu, who everyone wanted in Fantasy Football a few years ago is apparently the Redskins 8th running back now. He took a carry up the gut and dashed into the end zone to put it away.

13-24

Nothing going for Landry. Devin Smith makes a nice interception of Pat White. Still nothing going for Landry. Bad times for the O-line.

The whole second half was pretty much a snooze-fest.

Over in the Pirates game, Pedro Alvarez hit a "little league home run" because the Padres right fielder doesn't know how to scoop up a ball while running.

Players of the Game

Offensive Game Ball: Markus Wheaton

Defensive Game Ball: Jarvis Jones

Honorable Mentions:

Shamarko Thomas

LaMarr Woodley

Jonathan Dwyer

Derek Moye

Jamie McCoy

 Emmanuel Sanders

Landry Jones

Al Woods

Nick Williams

Mr. Yuck Sticker of the Game

Maurkice Pouncey making Brian Cofield look like an All-Pro

We knew there were going to be growing pains with the young offensive line, but we didn't think the mistakes would come from our All-Pro Center. Pouncey had his worst game since that game in Buffalo 2 years ago when Kyle Williams ate his lunch. A performance like this is more of an outlier than the standard for Pouncey, but the O-line needs him to be a stabilizing force, not the one giving up pressure. There will continue to be growing pains as the line comes together as a unit, and hopefully we don't see another performance like this out of Pouncey for another 2 years. 

Final Thoughts

• It's preseason and the offense didn't install a gameplan. Nothing to get too worried about there until we see what the offense will actually look like.
• Jarvis Jones needs to start.
• Al Woods is going to win the backup NT job. Looks like a totally different player this year.
• Another nice showing for the young linebackers. Garvin, Williams, Rolle and Baxter can all play.
• Le'Veon Bell's injury...ugh. Hearing 6-8 weeks, which probably puts his return date after the Week 5 Bye Week.
• Two games in the next 9 days. Two rounds of cuts in the next two weeks. Buckle up.
• Folks around the city seems to be taking the Steelers 0-2 preseason record hard