Going deep works well for Antonio Brown and Steelers

It was clear that Tolzien had some nerves on the Colts’ first series. The Steelers took a stark difference.

He’s topped 100 yards just four times in 2016, but Thursday was a reminder that the Steelers can still score points in a hurry and Brown can be an absolute nightmare to handle. This happened in the second quarter along with the 5-yard touchdown pass to Donte Moncrief from Scott Tolzien. Pittsburgh up 7-0.

For those keeping track at home, a look at Roethlisberger’s last three games against the Colts: 78-of-108, 1,107 yards, 13 touchdowns, no interceptions, a 144.5 passer rating. Shortly after that, another deep pass to T.Y. Hilton for 18 yards. Finding Tolzien for sacks were Gay, Javon Hargrave and James Harrison. They missed the kick.

Defensively, Lawrence Timmons led the team with nine total tackles as the Colts were held to 273 yards of total offense.

The Steelers could have scored 50 on the Colts if they so chose. Instead, with the Colts facing fourth-and-4 from the Pittsburgh 43, Pagano had punter Pat McAfee run a fake punt on which he threw a strike to tight end Erik Swoope for a badly needed 35-yard gain. Pittsburgh up 14-7. Todman had 37 yards on three carries, 19 of that on his longest run of the night. His 998 receiving yards are second behind the Atlanta Falcons’ Julio Jones, who has 1,105 yards, and leaves him two yards shy of joining Hines Ward as the second receiver in Steelers’ history to have four consecutive 1,000-yard seasons. Pittsburgh up 21-7.

And then there’s this: in those same three games, Roethlisberger has not been sacked, and has been hit just twice. Then a roughing the passer call pushed them further up the field for another.

Slay returned the interception 13 yards with 30 seconds left to set up Matt Prater’s 40-yard field goal as time expired, lifting the Lions to a 16-13 win over the Minnesota Vikings on Thursday. On the third-and-goal from the 2 in the fourth quarter, he tucked the ball and ran again and was tackled short of the goal line. They ended up having to punt though.

Not being able to turn those opportunities into points really ate at Tolzien during his post-game press conference.

Mr. Automatic, Adam Vinatieri, pushed a 52-yard field goal wide right in the first quarter.

“We are a beat-up football team right now, but we have some time to get some guys back and move forward”, Colts coach Chuck Pagano said. Fourth and goal at the 1, incomplete.

With the Steelers leading by two scores and being on their own 1 yard line they turned to Le’Veon Bell to pull them out. They were hungry. They love running the ball. He finished the game 14 of 20 for 221 yards with three TDs.

Nothing put the Colts down like the concussion Luck was carrying around, at least until they began the game without three of their defensive starters, or until they lost two starting offensive linemen in the first quarter, or until outside linebacker Robert Mathis had to leave with an elbow injury in the second half.

The Colts took over with five and a half minutes to score 3 touchdowns.

Tolzien’s second interception, albeit in a desperate situation, was nonetheless a bad throw, directly to cornerback William Gay, who was standing in front of intended receiver Donte Moncrief. Both times-all eight downs-the Steelers D prevented the Colts from scoring a single point, and that contributed heavily to their big defeat.

“We still have an opportunity and are still in a position where we can win our division”, cornerback Darius Butler said.

Indianapolis routinely went for it on fourth down Thursday, with Pagano explaining simply they were trying to win the game.