Bombs away: Steelers thump Colts, 45-10
Sylvester Washington Jr.| The Beaver County Times
Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger changes the play at the line during Sunday’s game against the Colts in Pittsburgh.
Sylvester Washington Jr./The Times
Pittsburgh wide receiver Antonio Brown makes a run after the catch during the Steelers’ 45-10 win over Indianapolis last season. Pittsburgh opens the season tonight when it plays Washington at FedEx Field in Landover, Md.
Steelers running back DeAngelo Williams runs the ball against the Colts on Sunday.
PITTSBURGH — Jacoby Jones opened the game by fumbling the kickoff and Antonio Bryant ended it by returning a punt 71 yards for a touchdown, as the Steelers clobbered the Indianapolis Colts, 45-10 Sunday night.
It was one of two fumbled kick returns by Jones and Brown replaced him early in the third quarter. His punt return fumble was recovered by teammate Darrius Heyward-Bey.
Brown took Indianapolis’ last punt at his own 29-yard line and went right up the middle for the last score of the game. He also drew an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after running into the goal post in celebration.
“I’ve been watching AB do that since 2010,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said of Brown.”It doesn’t surprise me when he’s able to flip the field like he did at the end tonight.”
Tomlin called the switch from Jones to Brown “obvious” and wished he hadn’t had to make the change.
“He wasn’t holding onto the ball and we have guys who are capable of doing so,” Tomlin said. “You would like to preserve them if you can, but we couldn’t in this game.”
Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger passed for 364 yards and four scores, two to Brown and one each to Martavis Bryant and Markus Wheaton.
Brown and Bryant each went over 100 yards receiving and DeAngelo Williams went over 100 yards rushing for the Steelers.
Defensively, the Steelers got three sacks and a forced fumble from James Harrison and a solid effort froma group that was maligned in last week’s 39-30 loss at Seattle.
“It was a big win for us and we had to overcome adversity in the form of turnovers early in the game,” Tomlin said. “As the game went on, we complimented ourselves when we had to and turned the negatives into positives with some good play.”
The Steelers (7-5) go to Cincinnati (10-2) next Sunday for a key AFC North Division game.
“We understand where we’re going next week and what’s at stake there,” Tomlin said.
Jones’ fumbled kickoff was recovered by the Colts. But Jarvis Jones intercepted a third-down pass and the Steelers dodged the bullet.
DeAngelo Williams fumbled a few plays later and the Colts took over at the Steelers 25-yard line. Indianapolis couldn’t get a first down and settled for a 35-yard field goal by Adam Vinatieri and the Colts held a 3-0 lead with 10:19 left in the first quarter.
Roethlisberger then drove Pittsburgh into range for a 29-yard field goal by Chris Boswell that tied the score, 3-3, with 5:27 left in the first. The drive covered 69 yards in 10 plays. Roethlisberger completed his first six passes for 67 yards.
Pittsburgh got the ball back again when Brandon Boykin intercepted a pass and was downed at the Colts’ 37-yard line. But the drive stalled and Boswell hit a 51-yard field goal to put the Steelers ahead, 6-3, with 3:15 left in the first.
Matt Hasselbeck passed twice to Andre Johnson for 44 yards total, the second one carrying to the Steelers’ 2-yard line and he passed to Frank Gore from the 9-yard line to give Indianapolis a 10-6 lead 8:26 before halftime.
Roethlisberger then passed Pittsburgh down the field, capping the 10-play, 80-yard drive with a 7-yard touchdown pass to Antonio Brown. He then passed to Will Johnson for a two-point conversion and Pittsburgh led, 14-10, with 4:04 remaining in the second quarter.
Taking over just after the two-minute warning, Roethlisberger passed the Steelers into scoring range, with completions to Williams and Markus Wheaton before a personal foul penalty against Ramon Foster moved the ball out of field goal range.
Roethlisberger passed to Williams again for 15 yards and to Wheaton again for 27 yards to the Colts’ 5-yard line 24 seconds before halftime. He completed the drive with a 5-yard scoring pass to Wheaton and the Steelers lead was 21-10 with 10 second left in the half. The scoring drive covered 60 yards in 8 plays and took only 1:38 to complete.
The Steelers defense forced a three-and-out and Brown replaced Jones as the punt returner. On third down, Roethlisberger passed 68 yards to Martavis Bryant for a touchdown that increased Pittsburgh’s lead to 28-10 with 12:35 remaining in the third quarter.
A defensive holding penalty kept the next Steelers drive going and got the ball to the 20-yard line. Williams ran three consecutive times for for 31 yards to the Colts’ 49-yard line. After an incomplete pass, Williams ran it again for 13 more yards to put him at 87 yards for the game.
The drive stalled and Boswell came in for a 47-yard field goal that missed wide right and Pittsburgh’s lead remained 28-10 with 6:08 left in the third quarter.
Gore then ripped off a 34-yard gain to the Steelers’ 23-yard line, but the drive stalled and Hasselbeck’s fourth-down pass fell incomplete. Pittsburgh took over at the 15-yard line and Roethlisberger ran for 13 yards on third down for a conversion.
Williams ran three straight times and went over 100 rushing yards on the way. Roethlisberger then passed to Brown for 48 yards and a first and goal at the Colts’ 8-yard line at the end of the third quarter.
The pass play put Brown over 100 yards receiving and gave the Steelers two receivers (Bryant the other) and a running back (Williams) over 100 yards and Roethlisberger had already gone over 300 passing yards.
Pittsburgh made it 35-10 when Roethlisberger threw his fourth TD pass, this one to Brown from 5 yards out. The TD capped a 10-play, 85-yard drive.
Indianapolis got a nice kickoff return and Boswell committed an illegal tackle to move the ball to the Pittsburgh 35-yard line, but Hasselbeck was sacked a few plays later by James Harrison and the resulting fumble was recovered by Vince Williams.
The drive eventually stalled and Boswell came on for a 42-yard field goal that made it 38-10 with 6:29 remaining. The 11-play drive covered 54 yards.
After a defensive stop, Brown returned the ensuing punt 71 yards for another score to make Pittsburgh’s lead 45-10 with 4:01 left.