The big news coming
out of week three is the injury to Ben Roethlisberger that appears to put him
out of action for four weeks. The impact on the team will be immense as there
is no one who can replace him.
The headline man of
the weekend is a close affair with both wide receivers A.J Green and Steve
Smith each producing two touchdowns and a combined 400 receiving yards in the
top clash, with Smith edging it for me it because he is 36 years young.
Cincinnati Bengals at
Baltimore Ravens
The AFC North division
is a fortress of tough football and this game highlighted why. The Ravens are
the only team that have never gone 0-3 so were desperate to prevent that curse dampening
their playoff aspirations.
Ravens quarterback Joe
Flacco was determined to lead Baltimore to a good start in the opening phases, knowing
the Bengals had never fallen behind this season. That plan fell apart as the
Bengals took a 14-0 lead. Playing with authority, Andy Dalton ran in for a
touchdown before adding a 16-yard touchdown pass to Marvin Jones.
The Bengals should
have added to that score before the half expired with a fourth and 2 and goal
to go. Instead of kicking a field goal, Marvin Lewis chose to go for it, but
Andy Dalton’s pass was incomplete.
The Ravens played two
quarters with Flacco looking heavy, but after his defense handed him a turnover
on the Bengals first possession of the second half he began to shine like the
veteran quarterback he is.
After Dalton gave up
his first interception of the season, Flacco’s completed a pass to Steve Smith
on the half way line and Smith weaved his way around his tacklers to go fifty
yards for the touchdown and spark Baltimore into life.
As the game entered
the final period, it erupted into a scoring frenzy. The Ravens took their first
lead of the day after Dalton’s fumble was returned for a touchdown. One down
later Dalton hit back with an 80-yard touchdown pass to A.J. Green.
Flacco isn’t a
quarterback to concede easily and his subsequent 9-play drive of 79 yards was
capped by a 16-yard touchdown completion from Smith that tied the team’s single
game record of 13 receptions.
The flip-flop scoring
continued on the Bengals next series when Dalton completed the scoring for a
28-24 victory after finding Green with a 7-yard touchdown catch, ending a tense
battle worthy of the division and keeping Cincinnati on top.
Pittsburgh Steelers at
St. Louis Rams
The loss of
Roethlisberger will be the reason this game is remembered, but it should also
be recalled for a Steelers defense that did not allow a touchdown. Pittsburgh’s
defense has been fragile for so long that it shouldn’t go unnoticed that they
are an improved unit and with Roethlisberger expected absence of four weeks,
they will need to be strong.
This game was in the
balance as the Steelers held onto a slender lead before Will Allen’s
interception with three minutes remaining. The turnover enabled Josh Scobee to kick
the field goal that gave the Steelers the 12-6 victory before Steeler nation’s
thoughts turned to the extent of Roethlisberger’s absence.
Oakland Raiders at
Cleveland Browns
In Cleveland, Josh
McCown is in a no win situation. The fans want to see Johnny Manziel as their
quarterback, while the coach prefers McCown. When Oakland took a 17-3 lead in
the second quarter, the fans let the coach know how they felt with the boo boys
finding their voice.
In the fourth quarter,
those vocal chords vibrated to a different pitch after McCown found his form
and brought his team back into the game and the stadium echoed with cheers. The
attempted Browns comeback ended with an interception and that may be how the
fans relive the game, not for McCown’s 341 yards and two touchdown throws.
The Raiders took a 27-20 victory back to
Oakland and their quarterback Derek Carr enjoyed the triumph after going 0-8 as
a rookie on the road.
No comments:
Post a Comment