There was some good news.
The Falcons held Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell under 200 yards of combined offense. That is something none of the past three Steelers opponents could manage.
There was a lot more bad news.
The Steelers rolled up 398 total yards – 353 of them through the air against the Falcons beleaguered secondary en route to a 27-20 win Sunday.
In addition, the Falcons failed to force a turnover and Desmond Trufant was called for an illegal contact penalty on a third-and-four with 3:05 remaining that allowed the Steelers to run out the clock.
“They did hurt us passing the football,” Falcons coach Mike Smith said. “I think they had 210 yards passing in the first half.
“Our goal was to stop (Bell). … We felt they were going to try to give us a big dose of him. We did a good job on the run early in the game.”
Bell, who entered the game as the NFL’s second-leading rusher, finished with 47 yards rushing on 20 carries, a 2.4 yards per carry average. He did rush for two scores, a 1-yard run in the closing seconds of the first half and a 13-yard run early in the fourth quarter to give the Steelers a 27-13 lead.
Bell also had five receptions for 72 yards. It was his 44-yard reception that bothered Smith the most. Facing a third-and-2 from their own 16-yard line, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger threw a short pass to the left that Bell took and broke free and wasn’t stopped until he reached the Falcons’ 40-yard line. It would set up a second Steelers field goal.
“On the catch, we had some issues in terms of communication,” Smith said. “They checked down and had an explosive play. I thought that our guys fought on the defensive side of the football. We did a very good job holding the first two drives to field-goal attempts. That is a very good football team that has gone out and thrown the football around. We’ve got to do better in defending the pass, no doubt about it.”
In all, Bell finished with a 119 yards of total offense. Bell had been the first back to have three straight 200-combined-yard games since Walter Payton did it in 1977. Only six players have done it in NFL history.
“They had a couple of explosive plays when they needed to, especially at the end of the half,” linebacker Paul Worrilow said. “We did a good job against the run, which gave us a chance in other situations in the game. But third downs, we have to be able to get off the field. (The Steelers were 6 of 11 on third downs.)”
It was the Steelers wide receivers that did the damage. Roethlisberger completed 27 of 35 passes and was sacked just once, on a nose tackle stunt by Paul Soliai.
Antonio Brown had 10 catches for 123 yards, Markus Wheaton five catches for 66 yards, Heath Miller had four catches for 68 yards and Martavis Bryant had three catches for 31 yards.
That was more than enough for the Steelers to come out with a victory.
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