The Steelers game was awesome.
My wife and I took a nice bus trip to the stadium, which was well worth the $10 fare (to and from the pick-up point). We arrived about an hour and a half early, and I was surprised that the time actually went by quickly, as the Jaguars had various activities ongoing on the field, and then the players came out onto the field for practice. I was very surprised at the number of Steelers fans here in Jacksonville. I thought that my wife and I would be the only ones dressed up in Steelers gear in our row, but there were many Steelers fans in attendance. I especially like that last link, which includes this quote from a Jaguars player: “That was the first time I couldn’t hear a snap count at a home game because of all the Steeler fans here.” There was an estimate of 20,000 Steelers fans in attendance, and it sounds about right. Apparently it was the all time attendance record for a Jaguars game at Alltel Stadium.
The game itself was exciting at first, as the Steelers lept to a quick lead, and the Jaguars tied it just as quickly. We regained the lead with another touchdown, and then it became a defensive struggle after that. It was a very annoying struggle for a Steelers fan to watch, as it seems that every time we were about to force the Jaguars to punt the ball back, they would make a huge passing play. Luckily, although they were able to consistently get close to the end zone, they weren’t able to make another touchdown the whole night. This type of defense is known as the bend-but-don’t-break defense, but I must say it’s quite nerve-wracking to see put in practice.
Unfortunately the Steelers were doing even worse offensively. A typical Steelers game plan this season involves getting the lead, and then calling running plays to eat the remaining game time away, relying on the defense to maintain the lead (and maybe even scoring some more points in the process). This relies on being able to get first downs with the running game, which the Jaguars did an excellent job of stopping. So the Jaguars were chipping away at the 7 point lead with a series of 3 point field goals. Finally, the Jaguars claimed the lead with about 2 minutes to go in the game, leading 16-14. The Jaguars fans were ecstatic, many started leaving the stadium.
They underestimated the resourcefulness of the Steelers quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger. Now that we had no time to muck about with the running game, the wraps came off of Ben, and he quickly led the Steelers down the field in range of the game winning field goal. During this time, he was the one calling plays, not the coaching staff, since there was no time to huddle. When in range of the field goal, he actually delayed calling the play. This confused me until he spiked the ball (an intentional incompletion that stops the game clock), and the kicking squad came onto the field to make the winning kick.
Thanks to the time that Ben intentionally leaked off of the clock, the Jaguars had only 18 seconds to score. They came agonizingly close to doing so, but in the end, it was the thousands of Steelers fans who went home happy.
For the most part, the Jaguars fans were gracious in defeat. I mean, they were peeved, but I didn’t see any cases of the fans trying to take out their frustration. This may have had something to do with the incredible number of Steelers fans around however. There was one fan who was annoying, in a New England Patriots jacket. (For those unfamiliar, the New England Patriots are the defending Super Bowl champions. They had a NFL record winning streak broken by the Steelers this year)
One galling thing I saw was a skit involving the Jaguars mascot. They sent the mascot and two people dressed in Steelers jerseys onto the field. The mascot then body slammed the two people and started kicking them. Obviously it was fake, but I think it was completely inappropriate considering the problems with violence in sports that we’ve had in the past weeks. It was almost uncanny, the announcer had got done just 5 minutes earlier reminding people that fighting was prohibited.
Overall, it was a very good game, I’m glad I saw it in person and helped keep the Jaguars from hearing their own snap count. :) I do, however, wish I had brought my camera. I thought they were banned, but apparently cameras with lenses of less than 6 inches are OK.