Game after off week has been troublesome
Losing streak stands at 3 after mandated break
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The off week is coming at an opportune time for the Steelers. Starting right tackle Marcus Gilbert and starting defensive end Stephon Tuitt, both of whom have been nagged by injuries in the first half of the season, hope to use the extra week of rest in an effort to get healthy for the second half of the season.
Getting healthy will be important for the Steelers and figuring out a way to reverse a recent trend once they resume play Nov. 12 in Indianapolis.
The Steelers are 0-3 after their past three off weeks. This after coach Mike Tomlin won six in a row after off weeks from 2008-13, eight in a row if you count playoff victories after the 2008 and 2010 seasons.
The Steelers had one of their worst outings of the season after their off week a year ago. They lost in Baltimore, 21-14. In 2015, they lost at Seattle, 39-30. In 2014, they lost at home to New Orleans, 35-32.
Tomlin is not expected to change the team’s off-week routine. The Steelers will have a usual Monday workout and film work and will practice Tuesday and Wednesday before getting a fourday break from Thursday through Sunday.
The Colts are 2-6 after losing Sunday to the Cincinnati Bengals. The Steelers beat the Colts, 28-7, in November 2016 in Indianapolis.
Mitchell defends hits
Steelers safety Mike Mitchell not only wanted to defend his reputation, calling himself the least-penalized big hitter in the NFL, but he also defended at least one of the two highly publicized hits that knocked out star players from the Baltimore Ravens the past two games.
Since 2014, Mitchell has been penalized four times for unnecessary roughness, once for roughing the passer (against Kansas City’s Alex Smith two weeks ago) and taunting. Two weeks ago, he was fined $48,620 for a hit on Kansas City’s Charcandrick West in which he wasn’t penalized and $9,115 for his late low hit on Smith.
When Smith called the late hit flagrant, Mitchell said, “I am not a dirty player” the following day.
“I have this knock of being this guy who is penalized so much,” Mitchell said. “I’ve gotten two penalties in over 50 games. I just hit people too hard so they associate me with getting penalties. But I’m not penalized. I got to be one of the least-penalized big hitters.”
Mitchell said he didn’t agree with the one-game suspension without pay given to Minnesota Vikings safety Andrew Sendejo, who knocked out Ravens receiver Mike Wallace last week and gave him a concussion.
It was the second game in a row the Ravens lost one of the top players with a questionable hit. Quarterback Joe Flacco was knocked out Thursday night in a game against the Miami Dolphins after a late blow to the head from linebacker Kiko Alonso.
“Mike Wallace was a clear runner, a clear runner that ducked his head,” Mitchell said. “You don’t want to see a concussion … [but] man, at the end of the day, you signed up to play football. But that’s all Sendejo did was make a football play in a football game. We all know what we signed up for.”
Detroit memories
Ben Roethlisberger’s first game at Ford Field was a big one. He became the youngest quarterback to win a Super Bowl when the Steelers beat the Seahawks, 21-10, in Super Bowl XL.
What does he remember most?
“Probably handing Jerome Bettis the game ball, promising him that I would get him a game ball from every playoff win,” He told NBC before the game. “I remember holding that ball as tight as I could, people coming up to try to take it, and finding him and giving him the last one.”
Now Roethlisberger is the older player his teammates would like to send off a winner.
“I think now I’m the Jerome Bettis, if you will. I’m the veteran guy, the leader,” he said. “You hear young guys say, ‘Let’s go play it for Ben.’ It means a lot.”
Climbing the charts
• Le’Veon Bell now has more than 7,000 yards from scrimmage in his NFL career.Bell went over the 7,000- yard mark in his 55th career game. Bell tied Eric Dickerson for the fewest games needed to reach 7,000 yards from scrimmage. For some perspective, Pro Football Hall of Famer Barry Sanders had a little more than 6,000 yards from scrimmage in his first 55 games.
• Cam Heyward recorded the 30th sack of his career in the first quarter, tying Brett Keisel for the third most for a defensive lineman in team history.
• Roethlisberger became the fifth AFC quarterback in NFL history with at least 1,000 completions vs. NFC teams when he completed his first pass Sunday night to JuJu Smith-Schuster. Only Phillip Rivers, Dan Marino, Tom Brady and Peyton Manning have completed more. Manning holds the record with 1,586.
• Smith-Schuster didn’t have a catch of more than 40 yards in the first seven games of the season. He had two in the first three quarters against the Lions. He caught a 41-yard pass on the first play from scrimmage to help set up the Steelers’ first points of the game, a Chris Boswell 34-yard field goal. He set a career-high in receiving yards in the first quarter. In the third quarter, he caught a 97-yard touchdown pass, which tied for the longest play in franchise history.
• Tight end Jesse James caught a career-long 32-yard pass in the second quarter.
• Defensive lineman Tyson Alualu recorded a sack for the second game in a row.
A rarity
Bell fumbled for just the third time in his career Sunday night. Bell fumbled on his 1,151st career touch. That’s an average of one fumble for every 383 times he touches the ball.
Bell fumbled once as a rookie in 2013 and once in 2016.
Still stingy
The Steelers did not allow a touchdown on the opening drive for the 25th consecutive game. That’s the longest current streak in the NFL.
Inactives
The Steelers deactivated receiver Martavis Bryant, right tackle Marcus Gilbert, defensive end Stephon Tuitt, tight end Vance McDonald, offensive lineman Jerald Hawkins, cornerback Brian Allen and quarterback Josh Dobbs.
The Lions deactivated offensive linemen Greg Robinson and Emmett Cleary, defensive back Teez Tabor, receiver Kenny Galloday, linebacker Paul Worrilow and running backs Zach Zenner and Tion Green.