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Steelers’ offense didn’t do its part

4 min read

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Let’s be completely honest. The Steelers were a sacrificial lamb Thursday night at New England.

Since the NFL began playing its opening game on Thursday nights at the home of the defending Super Bowl champions in 2004 – there were a couple that could not be played on that night or at the champion’s venue – the champs were 8-1 heading into last night’s game at Gillette Stadium.

Christians had a better record against the lions.

Beating the defending champs on opening night at their place was a tall task for the Steelers.

It didn’t help, however, that the Steelers took a large role in beating themselves.

The defense did its job in the first quarter, getting a big sack out of rookie linebacker Bud Dupree on his first NFL play to get the Patriots off the field. But the offense was too busy making mistakes to take advantage.

On the Steelers’ opening possession, they drove through the Patriots with relative ease, moving from their own 20-yard line to the New England 24.

But wide receiver Antonio Brown took a sack on a first-down attempted throwback pass to make it second and 18, then right tackle Marcus Gilbert was penalized for holding to kill a promising drive.

To make matters worse, new placekicker Josh Scobee pushed a 44-yard field goal attempt wide right and the Steelers came away without points.

On New England’s second possession, the secondary inexplicable decided not to cover All-Pro tight end Rob Gronkowski, who entered the game with 61 touchdowns in 72 career games, on the outside. By the time safety Robert Golden, who was in the game specifically to cover Gronkowski, realized what was going on, Gronkowski had already caught the ball and was waltzing into the end zone.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the Steelers again drove into New England territory on their next possession, but were again forced to settle for a field goal attempt, this time from 46 yards. Again, Scobee who entered the game with a career percentage of 82 percent, pushed this one wide.

Instead of being 7-6, the Steelers trailed 7-0 despite quarterback Ben Roethlisberger having just two incompletions to that point and running back DeAngelo Williams having eight carries for 47 yards.

The Patriots again capitalized, with Brady throwing another TD pass to Gronkowski to take a 14-0 lead.

The Steelers then had a final opportunity lost to cap off a disappointing first half when Roethlisberger was late getting a pass to a wide open Darrius Heyward-Bey in the end zone. Heyward-Bey, who had caught a 43-yard pass on third down earlier in the second quarter to set up Scobee’s second miss, had to go to his knees to catch the ball. As he did, his right toe went out of bounds.

The Steelers were again forced to settle for a field goal, this time a Scobee make that made it 14-3, Patriots, at the half.

The only thing that would have been worse is if Scobee had made hit the trifecta on missed field goals.

Williams rushed for 54 yards on 10 carries. Roethlisberger was 12 of 17 for 166 yards. Antonio Brown had five catches for 64 yards. And the Steelers still found themselves trailing by 11 points because of missed opportunities and mistakes.

Those are the kind of things you can’t do if you want to beat the defending Super Bowl champions at their field.

Unfortunately for the Steelers, there was no do-over for that kind of half.

The offense was supposed to carry this team while the defense got its feet under itself. The defense held New England to 14 first-half points, but the offense didn’t do its part.

That has to change moving forward for this team to win.

F. Dale Lolley can be reached at dlolley@observer-reporter.com.

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