Steelers Landry Jones plays hero over Cardinals

Well, that’s just how we all expected it would go, right? The Steelers came into this game with the heavy task of stopping the high-scoring Arizona Cardinals offense and while they couldn’t stop them from gaining yards, they managed to keep them out of the end zone for much of the game.

I’m still not sure what to do with this. Landry Jones made his NFL debut this afternoon when an ineffective Michael Vick left the game in the third quarter with a hamstring injury. Jones’ first official pass for the Steelers was an 8-yard touchdown pass to Martavis Bryant.

Landry friggin Jones. The Steelers inexplicably attempted a two-point conversion following Bryant’s touchdown reception but Jones’ pass was intercepted. The Steelers’ first third-down conversion was that touchdown pass and they scored on almost every second-half offensive possession since Jones entered the game.

The Steelers also got a lift against their former offensive coordinator with their field goal kicker Chris Boswell going four-for-four on his field goal attempts including a 51-yarder.

The Steelers also benefitted from a very undisciplined Bruce Arians-led Cardinals team that committed nine penalties for 111 yards and turned the ball over three times including two Carson Palmer interceptions.

A penalty that completely saved the Steelers was a penalty that doesn’t even end up in the box score because it was an off-setting penalty. Late in the fourth quarter on the Cardinals’ drive Steelers cornerback Ross Cockrell committed a pass interference on John Brown but a holding penalty on the Cardinals negated the pass interference that would have put the Cardinals in scoring range.

Mike Mitchell came up big time with the key interception in the end zone very late in the fourth quarter to which the Steelers responded with a huge touchdown on a 2^nd and 8. Landry Jones hit Martavis Bryant on a short pass that Bryant turned into an 88-yard touchdown to put the Steelers up 25-13.

The Steelers defense sealed the deal by holding the Cardinals as they went for it on a 4^th and 3 from the Steelers’ 9-yard line.

I think it’s safe to say that the Vick-era in Pittsburgh is officially over. The Steelers were absolutely dominated by the Cardinals possession-wise and yards-wise in the first half of this game while the offense played like hot-wet garbage.

This game doesn’t go down the way it did without the Steelers defense keeping the Cardinals out of the end zone and Landry Friggin Jones coming through big-time in his first official regular season game as a Steeler.

Here we go Steelers! Here we go!

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