This felt like a typical Steelers win. A beautiful game littered with frustrating plays and play calls. However, it was still a great game and the Steelers continue to keep rolling despite all of the injuries on the team.

We’ll have some excellent, in-depth breakdowns of the game over the course of the week, but for now here are some thoughts immediately following the game.

Offense

Ben Roethlisberger continues with his MVP-caliber season throwing for 380 yards, 4 touchdowns, and 0 picks. He could’ve had even more touchdowns too if not for some drops, but we’ll touch on that later. With Ben leading this offense, they appear unstoppable.

How great is it having Le’Veon Bell back? He did a great job running the ball today, but his main value was as a receiver – catching 9 balls for 88 yards. With secondaries having to worry about the dominant Antonio Brown and speedy Sammie Coates, Bell was able to catch short passes all day and get plenty of yards-after-catch.

Now Sammie Coates… man. He really may be a viable replacement for Martavis Bryant cause both of these guys  can make a huge play on one snap, then making a maddening mistake the next. Coates flashed greatness today catching 6 balls for 139 yards and a touchdown, but he also dropped at least 5 passes and 3 touchdowns. This was Coates’ breakout game, but it also reminded us that he’s still young and has room to grow.

It’s tough properly examining an offensive line when watching a game live, but our o-line did a great job today. The Jet’s have a very talented defensive line and they were able to keep them in check all day, only giving up 1 sack. Chris Hubbard seemed to play pretty well also in his first start as a tackle.

Defense

The Steelers “bend but don’t break” defense continues its prevalence. They allowed 316 yards, but held the Jets to only 13 points.

The Steelers weren’t able to get consistent pressure all day, but they still managed to bring down Fitzpatrick 3 times – including a strip-sack by Anthony Chickillo, the first of his career. This pass-rush isn’t perfect but it seems to be improving.

Vince Williams had another great day, accumulating 9 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, 2 QB hits, and 1 sack. Williams has proved over these last 2 weeks that he is capable of being a starter in this league. I miss Ryan Shazier and can’t wait to have him back, but it’s a shame that Williams will be relegated back to the bench soon.

Jarvis Jones also deserves to be commended after today. He gets a lot of heat from fans, but he’s played well this season. He will never be a strong pass rusher, but he plays smart and is great against the run. In one series today we saw him deflect a pass then the following play he sniffed out a screen and helped make the 3rd down stop. Jones is a very underappreciated piece of this defense.

Near the end of the game Brandon Marshall missed a catch and Mike Mitchell ran up and popped him. Players like Mitchell are tone setters for this defense; he helps this unit maintain a tough and physical mindset. You often see players swarming to the ball carriers and being celebrating after big stops. This is a fired up defense and it’s so fun to watch.

Final Thoughts

The Steelers weren’t always pretty, but they won. Plays like the fake field goal attempt, Coates’ dropped passes, and Ross Cockrell’s missed pick that led to a touchdown gave fans reasons to worry, but this team persevered.

Wins like today are important. Many labeled today as a “trap game” and at certain points it appeared it could be. Today showed that the Steelers are capable of rallying together and not falling apart when facing mistakes and injuries. The team was without stars like Shazier, Marcus Gilbert, and Cam Heyward, but they didn’t appear to skip a beat.

Let’s also take a moment to appreciate the losses today in the AFC North. The Browns got spanked by the Patriots today and had to play Terrelle Pryor at QB after their other 2 went down. The Browns are just sad at this point. The Ravens on the other-hand get no pity. After winning many close games versus bad teams, it’s great seeing them lose. If the Bengals lose today it’ll be a perfect week.

Next week the Steelers will face the struggling Dolphins. I’m sure some people will also label this as a trap game as well. Time for the Steelers to heal up and keep working.