Kicker Shaun Suisham drilled home a 34-yard field goal as time expired to give the Pittsburgh Steelers a 16-14 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles at Heinz Field.
The kick by Suisham culminated a 14 play, 74 yard drive and the Steelers now move to 2-2 on the season.
The Eagles had taken the lead on a 2-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Michael Vick to tight end Brent Celek with 6:33 remaining in the game, but Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger answered by completing 4 passes on the final drive and running back Rashard Mendenhall chipped in 31 all-purpose yards to propel the Steelers to the win.
It was the first game back for Mendenhall after tearing the ACL in his right knee in the 2011 regular season finale against the Cleveland Browns, and he finished the game with 81 yards rushing and 20 yards receiving.
The Steelers rushed for 136 yards in the game after running for just 195 yards in their first 3 games prior to Sunday.
Despite the win the Steelers made plenty of errors on both sides of the ball and those errors included the team being penalized 9 times for 106 yards. Left guard Willie Colon had an awful day as he was penalized four times for holding.
The Steelers defense managed to collect 2 turnovers in the game thanks to Vick, who fumbled 3 times in total. Vick entered the game with 9 turnovers to his credit and his fumble deep in the Steelers end in the first half was a huge turning point in the first half.
Roethlisberger finished the game 21-of-37 passing for 207 yards and he was not helped out by his wide receivers as both Mike Wallace and Antonio Brown had big drops in the game. Despite the penalties and the drops, the offense still managed to convert 6 of 14 third downs with 2 of those coming on the final drive of the game.
Linebacker Lawrence Timmons had his best game of the season as he recorded 9 total tackles and forced 1 fumble. Timmons should have had 3 sacks in the game but he allowed Vick to escape him all 3 times.
Fellow linebacker James Harrison also made his season debut and played a considerable amount of snaps in his return. He finished the game with 2 tackles and added 3 hits on Vick.
The Steelers did not get out of the game unscathed injury wise as safety Troy Polamalu reinjured his right calf in the first half and linebacker LaMarr Woodley suffered a right hamstring injury that kept him sidelined for the rest of the game.
Head coach Mike Tomlin said in his post game press conference that both Polamalu and Woodley would both be iffy to play Thursday when the Steelers travel on a short week to play the Tennessee Titans.
