Steelers Survive Fourth Quarter Rally Against San Diego

NFL News - October 5th, 2009 - Written by Scott

One week ago, Rashard Mendehall did not get one carry in their loss to Cincinnati. Criticized for not knowing the plays, he found himself in head coach Mike Tomlin's doghouse. Sunday night against the San Diego Chargers, Mendenhall rushed his way out and the Steelers held on to defeat the Chargers 38-28, despite a late fourth quarter rally by San Diego. After only rushing for 103 yards in his career, Mendenhall rushed for 165 yards and 2 touchdowns against the Chargers. Mendenhall got the start due to an injury to starting running back Willie Parker.

"I didn't have a chip on my shoulder," Mendenhall said. "He challenged me and it was a learning experience. I always had confidence in myself. I knew it was only a matter of time before I got an opportunity."

Pittsburgh jumped out to a 14-0 first quarter lead against the Chargers on a 1 yard run by Mendenhall and a 19 yard pass from quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to Mewelde Moore. Mendenall would then add another touchdown run from 2 yards out to send the Steelers into halftime with a 21-0 lead. Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers could not get anything going in the first half offensively and was not getting any help from running back LaDainian Tomlinson, who finished with just 15 yards on 7 rushing attempts. The Pittsburgh defense was not allowing the Chargers to move the ball at all.

"They came out and played about as well as they could play in the first half," Chargers coach Norv Turner said. "Obviously from our standpoint we'd like to think we could do some things to handle that. But we weren't able to respond the way I'd like to have seen us."

Roethlisberger, who finished with 333 yards and 2 touchdowns, found tight end Heath Miller for a 6 yard touchdown pass with 7:48 remaining in the third quarter to extend the Steelers' lead to 28-0. Rivers finally got on track late in the third quarter, but it was too late. Tight end Antonio Gates scored on a 6 yard touchdown pass from Rivers and Jacob Hester returned a fumble for a touchdown early in the fourth to cut the Pittsburgh lead to 28-14. Roethlisberger then found Miller again on another 6 yard touchdown pass and gave the Steelers a three touchdown lead with 7:18 remaining. Rivers found Gates again on another scoring play and with 4:31 remaining and then hit Chris Chambers on a 13 yard touchdown pass to bring the Chargers within seven with 4:31 left to play. Chargers kicker Jeff Reed hit a 46 yards field goal with 43 seconds left to put the game away for good.

Both teams now are at 2-2. Pittsburgh will play at Detroit next Sunday and San Diego has their bye week.

The game, which typically is played the immediate Monday, will be pushed back to Tuesday because the Metrodome is currently occupied. If you haven't heard, Brett Favre hosts his former team on Monday Night Football. Baseball postseason will have to make concessions for regular season football and the teams agreed to have an extra day off to prepare.

But because of the unexpected delay, whoever wins the game will have a quick turnaround for the ALDS against the Yankees. The AL East champs have the option of hosting Game 1 on either Wednesday or Thursday, and it will undoubtedly pick the former.

The NL West race nearly came to the same conclusion, but was wrapped up on when the Dodgers, who led by two games, won on Saturday. Instead, Colorado is relegated to the Wild Card spot and will travel to defending champion Philadelphia on Wednesday and Los Angeles will host the St. Louis Cardinals.

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