The Pittsburgh Steelers faced the San Fransisco 49ers on Monday Night Football, and this game had excitement before the game even got stared. Before this game could get started and even before the players could get on the field, a transformer blew up across the street, which caused the lights at Candlestick park to go out. This happened about 10 minutes before the players were going to take the field to get this game started, and caused a 30 minute delay in the game. Everyone in the media wanted to see who this delay would affect more. Would it affect the Steelers who traveled across the country, or would it affect the 49ers who should be use to this stuff but are a very young team. The last thing before we get into talking about the game is, would this delay affect Steelers QB Ben Rothlisberger who is playing with a high ankle sprain. Well let's take a look at what happened in this game and who got affected by the delay in the action.
In the first half of the game it would seem that the delay affected Big Ben who in the first quarter alone throw 2 picks. Ben hasn't thrown a pick in the first quarter of a game this entire season. This would normally be the beginning of the end for most teams, but not the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Defense of the Steelers would keep them in this game only giving up two field goals to give the 49ers a 6-0 lead going into the half. Everyone knew this was going to be a low scoring Defensive game, and the first half proved that prediction right. This game wasn't going smoothly by any means. With the first quarter coming to an end, yet again there was another power outage which put the game under yet another delay. Not good news for Pittsburgh, who are already having quarter back problems as it is. If these delays kept up then I'm not sure how Ben's ankle would hold up. Ben was gimpy as it was even with the pain medication he received before the game. The Steelers made a pretty nice look drive at the end of the first half to bring them down the field, to try and make this game go a little bit more their way. This was due to some silly mistakes made by the 9ers in the was of penalties. But had so miscommunication on one of the last plays of the drive letting a lot of time run of the clock before running a play. They were able to get into field goal range but time ran off the clock and that would be how the first half would end, with 2 field goals and 2 power outages.
In the second half, it wouldn't be much better for the Steelers. They just couldn't seem to move the ball on the 49ers. Although they were able to get a field goal on their opening drive of the second half, they really struggled in moving the ball. The Defense for the 9ers were just able to man handle the line of the Steelers, even playing with a man down at linebacker in Willis. San Fransisco was able to answer with a rare touchdown when they drove down to the red zone. They were able to do this twice during this half of football, once by the arm of Smith, and the second by the legs of Gore. It just seemed to be one mistake after the other for Pittsburgh in this critical game for them in their hunt for a division title and home field advantage. They would have had to of won this game, and win the rest of their up in coming games. But with everything that was going wrong, it just wasn't the Steelers day to play as they lost 20-3.
I think that all the pregame problems, Ben playing hurt, Harrison being suspended for his hit in the previous game, and the stout Defense of the 49ners was the problem for the Steelers. The 49ers are the hardest team to score on in the league, and it showed in this game. Let's see if the Steelers can bounce back and get the help they need to still win their division and clinch home field advantage in the playoffs, and make a run for the Super Bowl.
Until next time readers,
You keep doing what you do, and I'll keep you up to date with everything sports.
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