Let the Games Begin:

They say preseason doesn’t matter, but anytime your first team offense goes out against a first team defense and scores in under three minutes, it matters. Mike Tomlin’s debut was an exciting one for the Pittsburgh faithful. The Steelers looked more like the league’s top ranked offense than the Saints, and no one looked more surprised than the New Orleans secondary. Less than one minute into the game, Steeler QB Ben Roethlisberger made his first steps towards redeeming his performance of just a year ago by connecting with Cedric Wilson for a 55 yard reception.  Fullback Najeh Davenport punched it in from 4 yards out to give the Steelers a 7-0 lead.  

 And if scoring early and effortlessly didn’t feel good enough for Steelers fans there were plenty other highpoints to keep the towels waiving. The second team offense came into the game and showed that the talent runs deep by effortlessly racking up yards against the Saints starters. There were also signs of gems imbedded in the depth chart. Second year player Carey Davis looked like a season veteran as he lowered his shoulder and ran over defenders. It was hard not to have flashbacks of Jerome Bettis when Davis’s hard running knifed through arm tackles and plodded down the sideline for a 56 yard gain. Another young player who was looking to make a name for himself was Steelers rookie cornerback William Gay. Gay leveled Saints’ first round selection Robert Meachem to break up a possible reception, and later grabbed an interception. The Steelers went into the locker room at halftime up 17-0 on the scoreboard, but up much more than that for anyone keeping track of physicality. 

Although the Saints were running a somewhat vanilla offense that had Deuce McAllister on the sideline, the starters looked very sluggish. Drew Brees completed 1 for 6 before leaving the game, and Reggie Bush ran twice for 8 yards before his night was done. In fact the Saint’s didn’t show any life at all until child actor turned third string quarterback, Jason Fife, put a drive together to start the third quarter that netted seven points. Maybe after making the NFC Championship for the first time in club history, the Saints didn’t feel like they had anything to prove. Well it appears now they do. After being manhandled by the Steelers and giving up 300 yards in the first half, Saints fans were instantly reminded of the exact reason Chicago was able to cut the Cinderella story short a season ago: a weak secondary. Whether it was Mike McKenzie, Jason Craft, or free agent pick-up Jason David the results were uniformly disastrous. Sean Payton has four more preseason games to prove that the open airways in the New Orleans backfield are not the norm, or else another guy named Peyton will be licking his chops as the regular season kicks off.