On Sunday, the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Green Bay Packers 38-31 and below is my list of winners and losers from the game. Feel free to add your own in the comments below.
Winners:
Le’Veon Bell – Bell registered the first 100-yard game of his career and snapped the Steelers streak of 22 games without having a player reach the century mark. While Bell did fumble for the first time all season deep in the Steelers own end, he more than made up for it.
Antonio Brown – Brown had six catches for 105 yards to go along with a 41-yard punt return. On top of that, he broke the franchise single-season receiving yardage record that had belonged to Yancey Thigpen.
Mat McBriar – Three of McBriar’s five punts were downed inside the 20-yard line against the Packers and to top things off, he showed great poise during his 30-yard pass on a fake punt to tight end David Paulson. McBriar took a heck of a hit after releasing the ball and that tacked another 15 yards onto the end of the play.
Troy Polamalu – Polamalu’s forced fumble with two minutes left in the game led to the Steelers final score. Polamalu also registered four total tackles and a pass defensed in the game. He was around the football a ton in this game.
Shaun Suisham – The Steelers defenseless kicker had two special team tackles in the game to go along with his 31 yard field goal and four extra points.
Losers:
Chris Carter – Carter started in place of the ill Jarvis Jones and showed why he’s been buried on the depth chart all season. Carter failed to set the edge on a few runs and was pretty invisible as a pass rusher.
Terence Garvin – Garvin missed a few tackles and over pursued on a few other plays when asked to play inside as part of the nickel package. Garvin did not register a tackle or an assist before leaving the game with a knee injury.
Brett Keisel – As much as I hate to put Keisel here, the sack and the fumble recovery on the Packers second to last drive where a result of him being in the right place at the right time. I realize that counts for something, but the veteran was off of his feet a lot in the running game and not very impactful when rushing the pass rusher. The foot was not 100% and it showed.
Will Allen – This wasn’t Allen’s best game on defense or on special teams. Just two assisted tackles on defense and none while covering kicks. It appeared as though he was not sound to his lane on a few returns.
