After taking their home opener, the Pittsburgh Steelers improved to 2-0 after beating the Vikings. Here are three takeaways from Sunday’s victory.
Defending your home turf can do wonders for a football team, and the Pittsburgh Steelers benefited from the inner walls of Heinz Field in Week 2 against the Minnesota Vikings. Following a scare from Cleveland in their opener, expectations varied for this Steelers team. The Vikings, touting one of the league’s best defenses and weapons such as Stefon Diggs, Adam Thielen and Dalvin Cook, looked to provide Pittsburgh with their first “true” test of the 2017 season.
With Sam Bradford declared inactive as a game time decision, the Steelers were able to make quick work of Case Keenum and the rest of the offense, limiting the Vikings to just 237 total yards of offense. One of the keys for Pittsburgh’s defense was to limit Minnesota’s rushing attack, and despite the absences of Stephon Tuitt and T.J. Watt (exited game early with groin injury) the Vikings were only able to gain 91 yards on the ground.
After a disappointing performance in Week 1, the attention on the Steelers offense magnified immensely against a defense that featured five Pro-Bowl players. The rust appeared to be shaken off for the entire offensive unit, more specifically for Le’Veon Bell. While not quite hitting the century mark (87 yards on 27 attempts) Bell, alongside quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, led the offense to 26 points while controlling possession and committing zero turnovers.
The Steelers, now 2-0, will travel to Chicago for a week three contest against the Bears. What should you take from their Week 2 victory?