LANDOVER, Md. _ The Steelers opened their season in style Monday night. They blew past the Washington Redskins, 38-16, and sent notice to the rest of the NFL that their offense is in mid-season form.
Antonio Brown caught two touchdown passes and had 126 yards receiving, DeAngelo Williams rushed for 143 yards and two touchdowns and Ben Roethlisberger threw for 300 yards and three touchdowns.
The Steelers, after a slow start on offense, did what most everyone expects them to do this season: They scored often. And their defense did what most everyone expected them not to do, stifling the Redskins for much of the game. They kept them out of the end zone all but once.
It was a grand opening on both sides of the ball for the Steelers. Roethlisberger's three touchdown passes included two of spectacular nature to Brown and a strange one to Eli Rogers, playing in his first NFL game.
Roethlisberger ran the no-huddle offense almost exclusively the entire game.
The Steelers erased an early 6-0 Washington lead, cruising to a 24-6 lead. When Washington closed to within 24-16 in the fourth quarter, the Steelers responded by putting the game away on Williams' 15-yard touchdown run. Williams came back with a 6-yard touchdown run four minutes later on the next drive.
Washington scored its only touchdown early in the fourth quarter, a one-yard run by Chris Thompson, after Kirk Cousins lit up the Steelers by completing three straight passes for 57 yards.
That closed the gap to 24-16, but the Steelers then closed the door. They drove 73 yards on 13 plays. Williams polished off the final 15 on a touchdown run around left end behind blocks by David DeCastro and Sammie Coates. Their lead stood at 31-16 with 5:46 to go.
The Steelers led 24-9 after three quarters.
Brown caught his second spectacular touchdown pass of the game in the third quarter as the Steelers scored 10 points on their first two drives of the new half.
They made it 17-6 on Chris Boswell's 46-yard field goal on the opening drive.
Ryan Shazier then intercepted Cousins on Washington's first series of the second half. That gave birth to a 75-yard drive that ended with Brown catching a 26-yard fade pass from Roethlisberger over his shoulder in the far left side of the end zone. That pushed the Steelers' lead to 24-6.
Washington's Dustin Hopkins kicked his third field goal of the game to make it 24-9.
The Steelers led 14-6 at halftime.
Roethlisberger threw touchdown passes of 29 yards to Brown and three yards to Rogers _ and not in typical fashion.
What was a quizzical play-call on fourth-and-1 turned into the biggest offensive success of the first half for the Steelers.
At the Redskins' 29, they had two choices _ kick a field goal or go for the first down. Turns out there was a third choice _ go for it all.
Brown ran deep down the left and caught Roethlisberger's pass on the Redskins' helmet in the end zone over two defenders for a 29-yard touchdown and a 7-6 lead.
The Redskins came right back with a big play of their own when DeSean Jackson caught a 33-yard pass from Cousins in front of safety Mike Mitchell. However, on fourth-and-6, safety Robert Golden stopped Thompson inches short after a reception at the Steelers' 33 to thwart that threat.
The Steelers then took a 14-6 lead on a pass that traveled to Rogers in the end zone not in a straight line. Roethlisberer's pass from the 3 was intended for Coates, but cornerback Bashaud Breeland tipped it right to Rogers for the touchdown.
The Redskins led 6-0 after one quarter, when the Steelers offense that was supposed to be so dynamic was not at all.
They went three-and-out on their first series, and Roethlisberger was intercepted on the second.
On that second series, Rogers ran a hook on the left and Roethlisberger's pass was a tad wide. Rogers and Breeland reached for it, the ball tipped in the air, Breeland grabbed it and ran 26 yards to the Steelers' 37.
That led to Hopkins' second field goal of the quarter, from 40 yards, for a 6-0 Washington lead.
In their first defensive series, the Steelers used both their nickel (five defensive backs) and dime defenses, and rookie Artie Burns made his first appearance in the same secondary with rookie Sean Davis. Rookie Javon Hargrave also got in at nose tackle.
While they had trouble stopping tight end Jordan Reed, they did stop him. Reed caught three passes, dropped one and came up one yard short with a 13-yard catch on third down.
The Redskins scored first, taking advantage of what looked like a miscommunication on defense by the Steelers. Either that or it was a misconceived, because no one but linebacker Lawrence Timmons was anywhere near Jackson when he caught a medium pass and turned it into a 31-yard gain. Linebackers should not be covering Jackson.
It led to a Hopkins 31-yard field goal.
