The Titans Beat Some Team That Sort of Resembled the Steelers

Remember when the Pittsburgh Steelers were about pounding teams with the running game and then scaring the crap out of them on defense? That's in the past. The new look Steelers featuring Ben Roethlisberger chucking it all over the field lost again on the road last night to the lowly Tennessee Titans. I'll give credit to the Titans for keeping whatever slim hopes alive they have for this season, but the evolution of the Steelers was the most striking thing about that game.

Big Ben went 24 of 40 for 363 yards a TD and an interception. Through five games, Roethlisberger has had at least 40 passing attempts three times, another game he had 38, and his lowest amount of pass attempts so far is 31. Also in last night's game, the Steelers rushed for 56 yards on 22 carries. These aren't the Steelers who won a couple of Super Bowls in recent years. Obviously the NFL is a passing league and the Steelers are trying to keep up.

Chris Johnson had 91 yards on 19 carries for the Titans, marking the second time this year that he looked like he belonged on the field. That 4.8 yard per carry average more than doubled what he had been averaging. And Matt Hasselbeck looked like maybe the Titans didn't need to go with Jake Locker after all. If the Titans get on a roll it's going to be interesting to see what happens when Locker comes back from his shoulder injury.

The Steelers dropped to 2-3 and the Titans improved to 2-4.