No Excuses

Time of possession tells the tale of this game.

Time of possession totals for the game: Steelers: 40:15; Seahawks: 19:15.

After the first quarter, the Steelers had the ball for 35:12 compared to 9:48 for the Seahawks. The Seahawks had the ball for less than eight minutes in the second half.

The second half started with a Steelers’ 17-play, 80-yard touchdown drive that ate more than 10 minutes off the clock. Following the ensuing kickoff, the Steelers’ defense held the Seahawks ran to three-and-out in 1:31. The Steelers offense took over and mounted a 13-play, 85-yard scoring drive that at up more than eight minutes.

Game over, essentially.

“It was hot out there,” Seahawks linebacker Leroy Hill said. “But they were on the same field we were and in the same heat we were, so it was no excuse. I had to come in and miss a series until I got the fluids to get back out there.”

With leading receivers Hines Ward and Santonio Holmes sidelined, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger stepped up by completing 18 of 22 passes for 206 yeards, one touchdown and a 120.8 passer rating. Most importantly, he didn’t turn the ball over. And, while the total number of yards passing is not impressive, he kept drives going with clutch throws. Roethlieberger took three sacks, but he eluded the grasp of Seattle defenders numerous other times.

“He’s talented in there, he’s big and very good at avoiding people – so if you don’t wrap him up, you’re not going to get him down,” Seahawks defensive tackle Craig Terrill said. “He just has the good awareness that the best quarterbacks have in the pocket. You never want to be on the field that much. You need to have some three-and-outs. You need to have some turnovers, and we didn’t have either one.”

While the Seahawks’ defense couldn’t get off the field, the Steelers’ defense had no such problem. It limited star running back Shaun Alexander to 25 yards on 11 carries, and Seattle’s offense managed just 144 total net yards.

“I always wondered what the best defense was that could face us,” Alexander said. “It was a good offense.”

Granted, the Steelers’ defense benefited from the gross disparity in time of possession, but it did what it needed to do, too. This defense has the look of something special.