For three and a half quarters Monday night against the San Diego Chargers, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Mike Vick played lousy. But the veteran, along with the help of injured starter Ben Roethlisberger, managed to pull it together to lead the offense on two touchdown drives to win the game.
Minutes after running back Le’Veon Bell scored the game-winning touchdown from one yard out as time expired, Vick talked about his Monday night performance.
“We just struggled and it was all self-inflicted,” Vick told Alex Flannigan after the game. “I feel like certain things that we could’ve got done and I just second-guessed myself and I’m tired of doing that within this offense. The last two drives I just said I’m going to let it go and I’ve got to give a lot of credit to Ben [Roethlisberger].”
Vick credited Roethlisberger for drawing up and calling the long 72-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Markus Wheaton that tied the game at 17 with 7:42 remaining in regulation. On the subsequent game-winning drive, Vick proceeded to complete key passes to Darrius Heyward-Bey, Antonio Brown and Heath Miller in addition to moving the chains on a 3rd down and 6 play with his legs via a 24 yard scramble with 36 seconds left to go in the game.
“It was just tough sledding all the way through,” Vick told Lisa Salters after the game. “We knew that we was coming into the lion’s den and that it was going to be a tough challenge, but you just got to hang in there sometimes. It’s not an easy team to walk into and beat. We knew it was going to come down to the last drive and I knew I wasn’t playing that great, but it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.”
By the sound of things, Vick’s been scared that he will lose games for the Steelers and that’s been pretty evident in his play. Hopefully his performance in the second half of the final quarter Monday night will give him the confidence that he needs to start playing better. He does indeed need to start “letting it go more” moving forward.
Vick completed just 13 of his 26 pass attempts in the game for 203 yards. His lone interception in the game was a deep Hail Mary pass to close out the second half.
Vick will more than likely be called upon to start next Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals at Heinz Field as Roethlisberger still isn’t likely to be healthy enough to play as he continues to recover from the MCL sprain in his left knee that suffered back in Week 3.
Did Vick exorcise a few of his personal demons Monday night? We’ll see next weekend.
