Roethlisberger just good enough as Steelers defense bags the victory
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PHOTOS () —
By Mark Craig
Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
(MCT)
PITTSBURGH — Calling his own plays from a no-huddle offense late in the first half, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger dissected the soft part of the Vikings' Tampa 2 defense with two completions for 62 yards and a touchdown during an 18-second span.
"It was all Ben," said rookie receiver Mike Wallace, a third-round pick from Mississippi. "He was calling all the shots."
After Vikings defenders Tyrell Johnson and E.J. Henderson dropped two errant throws earlier in the drive, Roethlisberger called the same deep-middle pass to Wallace twice in three snaps. He had avoided the deep middle before that because the linebackers were dropping so deep in the Tampa 2 scheme.
"They were getting really deep," Roethlisberger said. "We were trying to dink and dunk them, but a couple of their linemen batted down a bunch of balls. So right before the half, we decided we wanted to take a chance and get Mike behind the linebackers. Hines (Ward) did a good job of attracting the linebacker (Henderson). I got it over his head, and Mike did the rest."
Wallace and Ward lined up to the right in the slot. On both passes to Wallace, Roethlisberger threw the ball perfectly over the linebackers and in front of the safeties. The first went for 22 yards to the Vikings' 40-yard line. After spiking the ball, Roethlisberger came back to the same play for a 40-yard touchdown.
Wallace caught the ball in front of safeties Johnson and Madieu Williams, but neither one made much of a move to tackle him.
"(Henderson) was getting so deep that you had to kind of pick and choose whether you wanted to go underneath or over the top on them," Roethlisberger said. "You just have to be careful. We had a bunch of underneath stuff that I thought was going to be big plays but weren't because their D-line was so active."
Roethlisberger improved to 56-22 overall, 32-8 at Heinz Field and 16-5 in the month of October. He did it despite completing only 14 of 26 passes for 175 yards. The Steelers were outgained in total yards 386-259, including 297-153 passing.
"It wasn't our best effort offensively," Roethlisberger said. "But our defense bailed us out. That was fun to watch."
The Steelers scored two defensive touchdowns in the same game for the first time since Nov. 22, 1998, when cornerback Dewayne Washington returned two interceptions for touchdowns against the Jaguars.
Sunday's defensive touchdowns came as Brett Favre, one of Roethlisberger's boyhood idols, was leading the Vikings into position to take the lead twice in the fourth quarter. Asked what he was thinking as he watched Favre, Roethlisberger, who orchestrated the Steelers' comeback victory over the Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII, smiled and said, "Just leave me enough time."
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(c) 2009, Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
Visit the Star Tribune Web edition on the World Wide Web at http://www.startribune.com
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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PHOTOS (from MCT Photo Service, 202-383-6099):
