Steelers Open NFL Season With An OT Victory

    PITTSBURGH (AP) - Jeff Reed kicked a 33-yard field goal with
4:32 gone in overtime and the Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh
Steelers again relied on Ben Roethlisberger’s ability to lead
clutch scoring drives to beat the Tennessee Titans 13-10 in the NFL
season opener Thursday night.
    The Steelers, their running game stuffed by Tennessee’s defense,
didn’t get going until Roethlisberger began repeatedly finding
Santonio Holmes and Hines Ward open downfield. Roethlisberger went
33 of 43 for 363 yards, with Holmes - the Super Bowl star - making
nine catches for 131 yards and Ward, despite a potentially costly
fumble, making eight for 103.
    The Titans lost the coin toss to start the overtime and, as so
often happens, never saw the ball again. Roethlisberger, who also
led a touchdown drive at the end of the first half, hit Ward for
11, Holmes for 11 and rookie Mike Wallace for 22. Unwilling to risk
a turnover, the Steelers kicked the field goal on first down to win
it.
    Pittsburgh looked ready to win it late in regulation when
Roethlisberger, so adept at running the two-minute offense, took
advantage of good field position created by a shanked Craig
Hentrich punt to find Ward on a 30-yard completion to the Titans 4.
But as Ward was trying to muscle his way closer to the goal line,
Michael Griffin stripped the ball and Stephen Tulloch recovered
with less than a minute remaining.
    Even with no running game to support him - the Steelers were
outrushed 86-36 as Willie Parker was held to 19 yards on 13 carries
- Roethlisberger had one of the biggest games of his career.
Tennessee’s Kerry Collins, usually the caretaker of a run-first
offense, was 22 of 35 for 244 yards after having only four games of
200 yards or more last season.
    The Titans never led until Rob Bironas, who had missed twice
from inside the 40, connected from 45 yards with 11:03 remaining
after Collins kept the drive moving with 15-yard completions to
rookie Kenny Britt and Justin Gage.
    The Steelers tied it on Jeff Reed’s 32-yarder with 2:57 to go,
but only after Mewelde Moore was held to 1 yard on two plays. Reed,
under pressure, barely got off a low line drive that squeezed
through the uprights.
    Roethlisberger was 7 of 7 for 57 yards on the drive but the
Steelers’ game-long lack of a running game again caused a drive to
stall after they had a second-and-2 at the 10.
    The Titans were the last team to beat the Steelers, winning
31-17 on Dec. 21 to gain home-field advantage throughout the AFC
playoffs, but they never won again and the Steelers never lost
again. Still, Steelers’ fans remembered how LenDale White, Keith
Bulluck and several Titans players stomped all over Terrible Towels
at the end of the game, and it created a buzz of anticipation for a
rematch that appeared likely to occur in January but didn’t.
    Instead, this game appeared to be a throwback not to last
season, but to the 1970s, when the Titans’ predecessors, the
Oilers, twice met and lost to the Steelers and their famed Steel
Curtain defense in the AFC championship game. All that was missing
were some Jack Lambert hits on Earl Campbell.
    The Titans spent the first quarter tromping on a Steelers
offense that managed all of 1 yard. Then, after Bironas’ 31-yarder
was blocked by Aaron Smith - he missed earlier from the 27
following a bad snap - both teams suddenly found their offenses.
    Roethlisberger, again a master of the two-minute drive, needed
only five plays to lead a 79-yard drive in which he found familiar
target Ward for 29 yards ahead of his 34-yard touchdown throw to
Holmes.
    Yes, those two again.
    After finally gaining some of the momentum that Tennessee held
most of the half, the Steelers gave it right back.
    With the Steelers defense missing both safety Troy Polamalu
(knee), who had earlier made a remarkable, one-handed interception,
linebacker LaMarr Woodley (leg cramps), the Titans needed only
three plays to tie it. Collins found Britt with no defender within
10 yards on him for a 57-yard completion to the 14. Collins then
hit an equally wide open Justin Gage in the end zone with 48
seconds left in the half.
    Polamalu hurt his left knee when a Titans player fell on him
while he was trying to pick up the blocked field goal. He did not
immediately leave the field for treatment, as usually occurs when a
player has a serious injury, but did not play again.
    Titans Pro Bowl cornerback Cortland Finnegan ended the half with
an 80-yard interception return to the Steelers’ 20. Roethlisberger
threw two interceptions in the half after throwing none - and eight
touchdowns - while winning his first three season openers.
    There were the usual trappings of an NFL season opener. A free
concert by Tim McGraw and the Black Eyed Peas attracted tens of
thousands of fans at a nearby riverfront park, scores of boats put
down anchor on the three rivers near Heinz Field.
    The U.S. ambassador to Ireland also flew in for the occasion.
(OK, so it was Steelers owner Dan Rooney, who can’t make most games
this season but wasn’t about to miss this one.)