Anleitungen » It was not the way Ben Roethlisberger would draw it up

TAMPA Derwin Gray Pittsburgh Steelers Jersey , Fla. (AP) — but the Pittsburgh Steelers will take it.In desperate need of a win, the two-time defending AFC North champions capped a tumultuous week in which star receiver Antonio Brown made headlines by shouting at an assistant coach on the sidelines and getting into a spat on social media with a 30-27 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night.The Steelers (1-1-1) built a 20-point lead held on for their first win despite not scoring after halftime.“I don’t feel like we had the ball much in the second half. Three possessions maybe. We need to do a better job putting it away,” Roethlisberger said.“At the end of the day we just wanted to get out of here with a win,” cornerback Joe Haden added. “It wasn’t a good-looking win at all. They made a lot of plays on us, but at the end we made some big stops.”Roethlisberger threw for 353 yards and three touchdowns, with all but 80 yards of that production coming while the Steelers were building a 30-10 halftime lead.Vance McDonald scored on a 75-yard pass play and finished with four catches for 112 yards. Brown and Ryan Switzer also had first-half TD receptions for Pittsburgh, which had been winless through two games for the first time since 2013.The Pittsburgh defense did its part, too, forcing four turnovers, including three first-half interceptions of Ryan Fitzpatrick, the 35-year-old journeyman who threw for 819 yards and eight touchdowns in two victories to begin Tampa Bay’s season.Fitzpatrick, the only player in NFL history to open a season with consecutive games with over 400 yards passing and four touchdowns, tried his best to create “FitzMagic” again in his third start in place of the suspended Jameis Winston.He led a long field goal drive in the third quarter, and then tossed fourth-quarter TD passes of 4 yards to Chris Godwin and 24 yards to Mike Evans to rally the Bucs (2-1) within 30-27 with 5:43 remaining.“We obviously dug ourselves a pretty big hole Derwin Gray Jersey 2019 ,” Fitzpatrick said. “The great thing to me coming out of this game is again the belief in the huddle in the second half and guys not wavering and not blinking and having the feeling the whole time that we were going to come back and win the game.”The Bucs got the ball back with just over three minutes left; however, the Steelers forced a punt and Roethlisberger ran out the clock.Fitzpatrick, who sacked three times, finished 30 of 50 for 411 yards and three TDs.“We just did so many things in the first half of that game that we haven’t been doing, so many things to beat ourselves,” Bucs coach Dirk Koetter said.“I’m really proud of the way we fought. You’re down three touchdowns or three scores at halftime, it’s not easy to come back in this league,” Koetter added. “We gave ourselves a chance there at the end and just couldn’t pull it off.”Roethlisberger was 30 of 38 with one interception, completing nine passes to JuJu Smith-Schuster for 116 yards and six to Brown for 50 yards.The quarterback’s on-field chemistry with Brown appeared fine in the first game since Brown responded to a former team employee on social media by suggesting the club trade him if it wants to find out how productive he can be without Roethlisberger.Fitzpatrick threw interceptions on three consecutive pass attempts during one stretch of the second quarter. The first stopped a promising drive at the Steelers’ 6, and linebacker Bud Dupree returned the last one 10 yards for a touchdown that put the Steelers up 23-7.Roethlisberger also turned a fumble into a 27-yard TD pass to Brown and moved the Steelers 75 yards in nine plays just before the half to make it 30-10 on his 1-yard scoring pass to Switzer.FLAGS, FLAGS, FLAGSThe teams combined for five roughing-the-passer penalties, most in an NFL game since 2001, as fans around the league continue to gripe about flags being thrown for what appear to be routine tackles. Pittsburgh was flagged three times for hits on Fitzpatrick, and the Bucs were called twice for roughing Roethlisberger. In all Cheap Derwin Gray Jersey , the Steelers were penalized 13 times for 155 yards. Tampa Bay had nine penalties for 80 yards. The Bucs also had a holding penalty that wiped out what would have been an 80-yard punt return for a TD by DeSean Jackson.RING OF HONORHall of Fame coach Tony Dungy, who won a Super Bowl ring as player with the Steelers and as a first-time head coach transformed Tampa Bay from a laughingstock into a championship contender, was inducted into the Bucs Ring of Honor at halftime.He’s the 12th member, joining Hall of Famers Lee Roy Selmon, Warren Sapp and Derrick Brooks; coaches John McKay and Jon Gruden; late owner Malcolm Glazer; and players John Lynch, Mike Alstott, Doug Williams, Jimmie Giles and Paul Gruber.Dungy and his wife, Lauren, accompanied Tampa Bay’s captains to midfield for the coin toss. Three of the couple’s children — Jade, Justin and Jason — led the team out of the tunnel as the honorary flag runners.INJURIESSteelers: Played without All-Pro guard David DeCastro (hand), right tackle Marcus Gilbert (hamstring) and safety Morgan Burnett (groin). Pittsburgh didn’t report any injuries during the game.Buccaneers: Defensive tackle Beau Allen (foot) was inactive after being injured during Tampa Bay’s Week 2 victory over Philadelphia. S Chris Conte left in the second quarter with a knee injury and did not return.UP NEXTSteelers: Home vs. Baltimore on Sunday night.Buccaneers: Visit Chicago on Sunday in the first game Winston is eligible to play. PITTSBURGH (AP) — Minkah Fitzpatrick could sense the vibe as he walked through the Pittsburgh International Airport last month, equal parts bleary eyed and adrenaline fueled following a trade that helped the second-year safety flee the rebuilding Miami Dolphins for the decidedly more stable Steelers.From the jetway to the concourse, from the shuttle to the main terminal, Fitzpatrick was struck by the number of people who recognized him and wished him well even though he’d been in town for all of five minutes.“Pittsburgh is a football city Benny Snell Pittsburgh Steelers Jersey , a sports city,” Fitzpatrick said.And Miami?“It’s a different type of culture down there,” Fitzpatrick said. “It’s not as big.”With good reason. The Dolphins haven’t won a playoff game since Bill Clinton’s final days in office and are yet in the midst of a massive reset under first-year head coach Brian Flores. Miami is winless (0-6) heading into Monday night’s visit to Pittsburgh (2-4), very much looking like a team that could use an intelligent, versatile and dynamic player such asFitzpatrick. And yet he’ll walk onto the Heinz Field turf wearing black-and-yellow after asking the Dolphins to continue their reboot without him .Fitzpatrick stressed it wasn’t personal, just business. He has no agenda he’s trying to push. No axe to grind. He wanted a change. The Dolphins — who are aggressively stockpiling draft picks in hopes of accelerating their makeover — accommodated him. When Flores scans Pittsburgh’s defense under the lights there won’t be any pangs of what might have been when he spots Fitzpatrick’s familiar No. 39.“It’s something that happens,” Flores said. “We’ve moved on.”Miami doesn’t really have a choice. The Dolphins received Pittsburgh’s first-round selection in next spring’s draft for Fitzpatrick and Flores has buried himself in trying to figure out a way to at least make his team competitive.“I think if you start to think about everything other than that, ‘If this happens … Why’d this happen? Why’d that happen?’ (it’s not beneficial),'” Flores said.Fitzpatrick, meanwhile, has certainly looked every bit worth the investment the Steelers made when they moved aggressively to land him just hours after losing safety Sean Davis for the season with a shoulder injury. Davis was entering the final year of his contract and Pittsburgh had made no overtures to re-sign him. Bringing in the 22-year-old Fitzpatrick addressed a need and in some ways provided an upgrade over Davis, who has been solid but not spectacular through three-plus seasons.Less than a week into his new gig, Fitzpatrick picked off a pass and forced a fumble in a loss at San Francisco. He’s missed all of one defensive snap in four games with the Steelers while winning over his teammates with his preparation and his professionalism.“He doesn’t play like a second-year guy,” veteran cornerback Joe Haden said. “He has the ease of a player who’s been in the league at least five years. He’s very, very Benny Snell Pittsburgh Steelers Jersey , very mature and takes the game seriously. He doesn’t just talk for no reason. He’s really focused, locked in. Very smart. Knows all the plays. All the checks.”Fitzpatrick shrugs off the compliments. Call it the byproduct of playing safety for Nick Saban at Alabama. Saban doesn’t have his coaches dumb things down to accommodate the Crimson Tide’s playmakers. If anything, Saban forces his coaches to go the other way because he knows it will help prepare his stars for what awaits at the next level. It’s one of the reasons Fitzpatrick has been able to adjust so quickly. The playbook Steelers defensive coordinator Keith Butler handed Fitzpatrick when he arrived was the third one Fitzpatrick downloaded in less than a year. And yet he’s rarely found himself out of place on the field.“To me, he is very sudden,” Butler said. “What I mean by that is once he realizes what is going on, he is quick to attack and do his job. I think that has probably helped us as much as anything else.”Focusing on football also helps. Fitzpatrick spent his first week in Pittsburgh at a nearby hotel waiting for his gear to arrive from Miami. He then met with a real estate agent after the Steelers returned from San Francisco. He asked teammates for recommendations on where to live and told the agent he didn’t need much to get by. A bed. A sofa. A kitchen. That’s it.When he heads home for the night, Fitzpatrick will often hop in his car and just drive around in an attempt to get a feel for his new town, a unique challenge of its own in a place — unlike Miami — where there are no palm trees, straight roads or easy ways to get from here to there. Yet Fitzpatrick has always prided himself on being able to find his way around no matter where he is. Residue from his job description.Besides, as he put it “I don’t just want to sit at home on the couch. I’ve got to check things out.” So Fitzpatrick will cruise around, drink it in and try not to ask his phone for help getting back home. So far, so good. On the field and off.“He’s a Swiss Army knife,” Haden said. “He can do anything.”