By Ray Porter Jr. for Urban Media Today
PITTSBURGH, PA–The AFC North-leading Pittsburgh Steelers were able to put some distance from the 2nd place Baltimore Ravens after defeating the Miami Dolphins 28-15 in front of 65,663 at Acrisure Stadium and the Monday Night Football audience. The win snapped the Dolphins (6-8) 4-game losing streak.
“Man, we love Monday Night Football, mission accomplished,” said Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. “Certainly, we wanted to engineer victory, but we wanted to do it in a certain way. That was a hot football team, and they had rode their run game over the last month or so; I think averaged 192 a game over the last five weeks, so we needed to stop the run, and certainly we needed to run the ball in the effort to flip that component, and I think that made the engineering of the victory more fluid.”
Steelers QB Aaron Rodgers (23/27, 224 yards, 2 TDs) was superb as he led the Steelers on 4 scoring drives, which included TD passes to Marquez-Valdes-Scantling and DK Metcalf (3 Rec, 55 yards) on an impressive 28-yard score in which he shook off several Dolphin defenders, including former Steelers S Minkah Fitzpatrick. TE/FB Connor Heyward and TE Jonnu Smith rushed for scores for the Steelers (8-6).
RB Kenneth Gainwell led the Steelers with 80 yards as they rushed for 135 yards as a team.
“Yeah, it took us a while there to get going, but you got to give a lot of credit to the Dolphins. Over that same five-game stretch I think they averaged giving up 13.2 points a game,” said Tomlin. “They’ve been really stingy in the red area. Only about 20% of those possessions were touchdowns. So, we didn’t expect it to be easy, but certainly after we got it going, we had a little bit of fluidity there.”
Before giving up 2 late TDs, the Steelers defense held the Dolphins offense to 3 points for 3 quarters, and they held RB De’Von Achane to only 60 yards as the team rushed for 63 yards overall. They were able to sack QB Tua Tagovailoa (22/28, 253 yards, 2 TDs, INT) 4 times (1 by former Dolphin DB Jalen Ramsey and DT Cam Heyward) and were intercepted by CB Asante Samuel Jr.
“Yeah, you know, obviously we were at less than full strength, but everybody is. You know, we embrace that component of it. We believe in the strength of the pack and a lot of guys stepped up and made that a truism,” said Tomlin.
The Steelers will now prepare to travel to Detroit to face the Lions, also 8-6 and are fighting to keep their playoff hopes alive. The Steelers know it is imperative that they are prepared for the battle.
“We got to go to Detroit, and you know what they’re capable of, particularly with their backs and so forth. Stay tuned. Keep watching,” said Tomlin.
Notes: Tomlin on former Steeler QB Ben Roethlisberger, C Maurkise Pouncey and LB Joey Porter Sr., who were inducted into the team’s Hall of Honor this past weekend, “I would also like to recognize our Hall of Honor inductees. Just quality black and gold Steeler men. Great to not only welcome them into the fold but also see many of their teammates here in town supporting them. That never gets old, seeing those guys. Hopefully, they had a really good weekend, man. Thankful that we were able to perform and entertain them as well.”
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