3. October 5, 2008
Big Ben Wills His Team to Win
Steelers 26 – Jaguars 21
The Steelers were enjoying a 3-1 record as they headed into their Sunday Night game versus the team that had given them fits in seasons past. Yet despite their nice record, all was not well in The Steel City. Two of the Steelers’ 3 wins were against patsies in the form of the Texans and the Browns, and Philadelphia had spanked them in a Week 3 matchup that saw Ben abused all game long and sacked 9 times. To make matters worse, the Steelers were without their leading rusher from the past three seasons in the form of Willie Parker. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know that Jacksonville would look to take advantage of these weaknesses early and often. Thus, a showdown was set between these two bitter rivals and what those of us that watched it got one of the best games from the 2008 regular season.
Terrible things happened early and bad vibes of “Here We Go Again” occurred on the 5th play from scrimmage when Rashean Mathis took advantage of Sansmokio Holmes falling on his route and took a pick back 72 yards for a TD to give Jacksonville an early 7-0 lead. Why Rashean Mathis saves his best days for the Steelers I will never know. But that dude always brings his A-Game when playing Pittsburgh. He’s like a dreadlocked Frank Wycheck! Regardless, the Steelers got the ball back down 7-0 and really needed some sort of positive drive to keep themselves in the game. Thankfully, a nice drive was exactly what they got.
Big Ben orchestrated a 12 play 71 yard drive that saw Mewelde Moore do quite a bit of grunt work. Me-Mo was huge in this game and he is arguably one of my favorite Steelers of all-time (plus he played Minor League baseball for the Padres to boot). Anyways, Ben fired a 1 yard TD pass to his TE Heath Miller, and the game was knotted up at 7. To their credit, Jacksonville answered the Steelers’ TD on their following possession. David Garrard got some quick pass completions that netted some big yardage, and with a 39 yard P.I. penalty on Ike Taylor, Jacksonville had the ball on the Steelers’ 1 yard line. Maurice Jones-Drew took the ball in from there and Jacksonville jumped out to a 14-7 lead. The Steelers took the ensuing possession, and thanks to some Me-Mo grittiness and a nice Hines Ward 14 yard reception, the Steelers got the ball enough into field goal range for Jeff Reed to hit a 38 yarder and cut the deficit to 14-10. The Steelers then held tough on Jacksonville’s following drive and forced a punt that led to the play of the 1st Half.
With Limas Sweed beginning to show signs that he was a vagina and the fact former 3rd WR Cedrick Wilson was gone, a spot and some significant playing time opened up for a 4th year speedster with suspect hands from Tiffin University named Nate Washington. 2008 was a nice season for Nate who parlayed that success into a lucrative contract with the Titans that offseason, and he may have made his best play of the year that night in Jacksonville. Faced near midfield Ben dialed up a bomb to Washington who caught it and raced down the sideline for a 48 yard TD. Nate somewhat taunted the DB trailing him, but with good reason, the dude just blew the coverage and couldn’t keep up. The Steelers were up 17-14 and later in the quarter sought to add more.
With just under 3 minutes remaining Ben ran the 2 minute offense to almost perfection and took the Steelers 66 yards and into field goal range. Yet as would be the theme the entire season, the Steelers Goal Line offense faltered and they had to settle for a 23 yard Jeff Reed Field Goal to put them ahead 20-14 at Half Time. Watching the game at my parents’ house I was so nervous with anticipation that I couldn’t get off the couch. The Steelers had dominated the 1st Half but had only a 6 point lead. I figured it wasn’t big enough for them to win in a place where they had only won three games prior to that in their history. Nevertheless, I just kept hoping that the Steelers would find a way to pull it out.
The 3rd Quarter saw both Offenses stall and each team scoring zero points. In fact the Steelers went 3 and Out on both of their possessions. Jacksonville though mounted a drive of their own late in the 3rd and then into the 4th Quarter. Garrard took his team 76 yards in 6 plays which was helped by a total b.s. unecessary roughness call on Ryan Clark. Garrard found TE Marcedes Lewis for a 24 yard TD on the following play and jumped back into the lead at 21-20 early in the 4th Quarter. The amount of anger I felt towards the officials was unlike anything I had felt until last season’s blatant hypocrisy. Giving Jacksonville those chinsy calls unleashed quite the creativity when it came to putting swear words together. However, it didn’t help the Steelers so I figured I’d just keep hoping the breaks would go their way.
Pittsburgh and Jacksonville did nothing on their possessions following the Lewis TD and the stage was set for Ben Roethlisberger to become a legend, keep the Super Bowl season alive, and turn the tables in the Steelers vs. Jaguars rivalry. At his own 20 with 6:33 to play Ben went to work. He hit Hines, he hit Me-Mo, he hit Washington who was flagged with a b.s. unsportsmanlike penalty, and then Me-Mo popped a 27 yard run into Jacksonville territory to really break the drive open. Then on 3rd and 8 from the Jaguars 31 with just over 3 minutes remaining Ben pulled off a miracle play which I feel truly exemplifies the type of gamer and winner that he is. With two guys on him, Big Ben fired an 18 yard laser to Hines Ward for a 1st Down!
One guy was literally on his arm, and Ben just stood there basically undeterred and got them the first down. At the Jacksonville 13, Ben went to work again and on 3rd and 5 from the Jacksonville 8, Ben found Hines in the corner for a TD to give the Steelers a 26-21 lead. The 2 point conversion to Heath Miller failed, but the Steelers had seized the momentum and Jacksonville couldn’t respond with under 2 minutes remaining. The Steelers held the Jaguars on their following drive and Jacksonville turned the ball over on downs with 25 seconds to go! Ben kneeled for the win and the Steelers pulled off a tremendous road win!
All units did a nice job on that muggy night in Jacksonville. The Defense only gave up two TD’s and were getting jobbed all night. LaMarr Woodley had 2 sacks and Deebo chipped in 1 and forced a fumble. Ben had an incredible game aside from the Mathis Pick-6 where Holmes fell down, and went 26-41 for 309 yards and 3 TD’s. My boy Me-Mo had 99 yards on the ground and another 17 receiving in place of an injured Willie Parker, and Washington, Ward, Holmes, and Miller were all glad beneficiaries of Ben’s tremendous night.
In my opinion, was really the game that I believe the 2008 magic started. The Steelers just had a never-say-die attitude that season and it was this game that I feel really inspired the Hell out of them. They had exercised the demons of their past while in turn sent the Jaguars into a tailspin that they really haven’t fully recovered from to this day.