The votes are in for the game ball winners for the Steelers victory over the Browns, and the results are a little surprising. The long and the short of the poll results are simple – lots of love for Le’Veon Bell. Le’Veon Bell certainly did deserve a game ball for his efforts in leading the Steelers to victory over the Browns with 201 yards from scrimmage, 90 of which he earned on the first drive alone.
Le’Veon Bell gets pushed out of bounds by Jaime Collins during the 2016 Steelers win over the Browns. Photo Credit: Ron Schwane, AP.
But what’s so surprising is that this corner of Steelers Nation wasn’t terribly generous in spreading the love around, unless it was for James Harrison. You can see below:
Game ball winners from Steelers road win over Browns
James Harrison of course broke the Steelers all time sack record, previously held by Jason Gildon, in an overall impressive Steelers goal line stand. But Silverback was hardly the only Steelers defender to make impact plays in that goal line stand, or in the game as a whole.
Stephon Tuitt had a monster game, wracking up 2.5 sacks and making plays all over the field, yet he only earned 2 votes. Ryan Shazier did a little better with 3 votes, after making an impressive strip-sack. Lawrence Timmons had his best game of the year, and got 2 votes. Arthur Moats and Artie Burns each got a game ball vote.
- But no one thought enough to write-in Javon Hargrave, who also put in a strong game.
Which is interesting, because Sammie Coates got 3 write-in votes, or as many votes as Shazier did, who was on the ballot. Kudos to those citizens of Steelers Nation for exercising their right to write in.
The offensive voting also resulted in a mild surprise. Ben Roethlisberger only earned one vote. While this was hardly a banner game for Big Ben, Ben Roethlisberger has been struggling on the road, and little of his road rust was evident. An Antonio Brown got zero votes, despite managing 8 catches vs. one of the NFL’s best corners, and on a day when he got little help from the rest of the Steelers wide receiving and tight end corps.
A strong case could have been made to give David DeCastro a game ball and/or one to the entire offensive line, who played their most complete game of the season. That didn’t happen, however.
Fair enough. You have to call them the way you see them, and Steel Curtain Rising thanks everyone who took time out to vote!
