Pittsburgh Steelers Thursday Night Recap

Mike Vick scrambles during the Thursday night loss to the Ravens

Thursday night football game had many story lines going into last night. Mainly if you watched any of the pregame coverage it was hard not to notice that Michael Vick was the main topic for discussion both before and after the game. As a disclaimer I am a huge Michael Vick fan simply because of what I have seen him do in person down here in Atlanta. 

I thought Michael Vick given the circumstances of having one full day of practice with the starters for the Steelers he played pretty good. I thought the offensive coordinator and head coach approached the game a little too conservatively early on and subsequently got a little too cute late in the game where they should have played conservative. Mainly going forward that last 4th down play with the out rout to Brown vs. handing it off to Bell who was averaging almost 6 yards per carry . 

Now don't get me wrong Antonio Brown was wide open and Mike Vick simply missed the throw, but take into account that you have a quarterback who has had little work with the ones and it's over time - in my opinion you have to go with a chance to win it with the field goal. Worst case scenario is that your field goal kicker misses that kick and at least you know you gave yourself a chance to win..  

The first two quarters were pretty much pathetic for the Baltimore Ravens. Theres no wonder that the Ravens were 0 - 3 based on the first 2 quarters. Bell proved that he is a top three running back in the league, and we saw that Michael Vick still has a strong arm and at least a 4.5 speed. We also saw that so far Antonio Brown is missing Ben Roethlisberger and it's possible that his production will suffer until Ben returns. Michael Vick historically has been a quarterback that leans on the running back as well as the tight end very heavily; reference Algae Crumpler and his career statistics as well as Brent Celek in Philadelphia, Vick normally either throws deep, checks down to a tight end, or simply scrambles. Going forward the schedule gets much harder for the Steelers, Michael Vick will need to play similar as he did Thursday night where he's taking what the defense is giving him and he plays smart taking the easy throws and running out of bounds. If Vick does play in control the Steelers have a chance win a few games until Ben returns.