Steelers outlast Chargers in Monday Night Football thriller

The Steelers looked to continue their Monday Night Football dominance while exorcising their west coast nightmares in their game against the San Diego Chargers.

Obviously the first thing pointed out by both the local broadcast and ESPN’s broadcast was just how many Steelers fans had “traveled well” to make the trip to San Diego. Hopefully this notion can be corrected once and for all.

True, there were a considerable amount of Steelers fans in Qualcomm stadium on Monday night, however, as a resident of Pittsburgh I can attest that the city does not, in fact, empty out when the Steelers go on the road. There are actually Steelers fans in different parts of the country. They live there already. So there’s that.

The game had every chance to be a high-scoring affair with Philip Rivers reuniting with his favorite all-time target in Antonio Gates and Michael Vick hopefully honing in on the particulars of the Steelers offense.

San Diego was able to score on their very first drive of five plays for 84 yards taking just over two minutes culminating in a short pass to Antonio Gates for a 12-yard touchdown. The Steelers responded with Chris Boswell’s first ever NFL field goal from 47 yards after a 9 play-47-yard drive.

The Steelers got a break on the defensive side of the ball in the third quarter when cornerback Antwon Blake intercepted Rivers on a pass intended for Malcom Floyd and returned it 70 yards for a touchdown. Also good to know is that Boswell can also connect on an extra point. So far so good.

The Chargers started the fourth quarter with a 40-yard field goal by Josh Lambo to tie the game at 10 apiece.

This game fell in line with how things are going so far in the NFL this season where the flags are flying with more regularity than the hot takes about who is the most elite quarterback. The two teams combined for over 140 penalty yards on 14 penalties with the Steelers accounting for 86 penalty yards, mostly on special teams.

The Chargers took the lead midway through the fourth quarter on a short pass from Philip Rivers to, you guessed it, Antonio Gates for 11 yards to go up 17-10.

The Steelers’ offense was once thought of as one of the, if not the best offense in the league going into this season. Now we see just how big the drop off is without Ben Roethlisberger in the lineup. We can go without Le’Veon Bell or Martavis Bryant for a few games here and there but take Ben Roethlisberger out of the lineup and we’re getting outgained in yards by 406 to 349. We had 14 first downs to San Diego’s 24.

On the Steelers’ next possession following the San Diego touchdown Michael Vick connected with Markus Wheaton on a 72-yard touchdown to tie the game at 17-17. Also good news that Boswell again connected on the extra point.

The Chargers took the lead with just a little over three minutes left in the fourth quarter on a 54-yard field goal by Lambo. With that it was on Vick to run the 2-minute drill to either get the ball into field goal range for Boswell to tie it up and send the game into overtime or win it with a field goal.

The Steelers had an opportunity with five seconds left on the clock to run one last play to try to win it with a touchdown instead of just going ahead and kicking the game-tying field goal thanks to a personal foul penalty to Heath Miller on the one-yard line.

And what do they do? They ring the friggin Bell! A direct snap to Le’Veon Bell and he stretches to score the touchdown as time ticks down to give the Steelers their third victory of the year in dramatic fashion. Steelers win, 24-20.

Good night San Diego!

Here we go Steelers! Here we go!

Next: Can Vick and Brown connect?

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