There was almost another Music City Miracle on Sunday, but the Pittsburgh Steelers’ defense just tuned it out.
The Steelers held Chris Johnson to 34 yards to snap his streak of 100-yard rushing games at 12 en route to a 19-11 victory over the Tennessee Titans on Sunday.
Pittsburgh also forced six turnovers - including two interceptions by Vince Young, who finished 7 of 10 for 66 yards. Young was replaced by Kerry Collins in the fourth quarter.
The Titans almost staged a big comeback, as Collins threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to Nate Washington with 1:03 left and a two-point conversion pass to Kenny Britt to pull within eight.
After Tennessee recovered the onside kick, Collins moved the Titans to the Pittsburgh 31 before time ran out after two false starts and a short completion to Johnson.
The Titans (1-1), who rushed for 205 yards and three touchdowns in their 38-13 victory over the Oakland Raiders in Week 1, were held to 46 yards.
The Steelers had 127 yards of offense, including 21 passing. Rashard Mendenhall had 69 yards rushing for the Steelers.
Jeff Reed kicked four field goals for the Steelers (2-0), who are halfway through quarterback Ben Roethlisberger’s suspension for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy.
The Steelers resorted to trickery on the first play of the game. Mewelde Moore caught Rob Bironas’ opening kickoff at the 3-yard line and handed off to Antonio Brown, who went 89 yards for a touchdown.
Steelers quarterback Dennis Dixon left the game in the second quarter with an apparent left knee injury and did not return. He was replaced by Charlie Batch.
Pittsburgh | Tennessee | |
Rashard Mendenhall | Player | Chris Johnson |
23 | Attempts | 16 |
69 | Yards | 34 |
3.0 | Avg Yards | 2.1 |
0 | Touchdowns | 0 |
20 | Long | 11 |
Pittsburgh | Tennessee | |
Mike Wallace | Player | Justin Gage |
2 | Receptions | 4 |
25 | Yards | 74 |
12.5 | Avg Yards | 18.5 |
0 | Touchdowns | 0 |
15 | Long | 30 |
Yards | Scoring | Defense | ||||||
Team | Tot | Rus | Pas | TD | FG | INT | Sacks | FF |
Pittsburgh | 127 | 106 | 21 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 4.0 | 6 |
Tennessee | 238 | 46 | 192 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4.0 | 1 |