The Steelers Thrusday Night trashing of the Titans certainly energized Steelers Nation if voting in our Steelers-Titans game ball winners poll are any indication. And this time the race was hotly contested and for good reason.
LeShaun Sims couldn’t ground Antonio Brown and neither could Ben Roethlisberger, at least not in our game ball poll! Photo Credit: Barry Reeger, Penn Live
At first glance, it appears that Ben Roethlisberger narrowly out polled Antonio Brown by a single vote to win the poll. However, if you scroll down, you’ll see that someone wrote in “AB” which can only be interpreted as Antonio Brown, so when we had his two votes to his 24, he comes out ahead of his quarterback by one
- And for good reason, the duo was outstanding Thursday night, with both players in championship form.
The next highest vote getter was Cameron Heyward. That’s not much of a surprise, given how thoroughly Cam Heyward dominated the Titans, including making a critical sack on third down to force a field goal when the outcome remained very much in doubt.
Support for Heyward built slowly however, and one can speculate on whether it was influenced by Tony Defeo’s didactic piece on whether the Steelers 2017 defensive line is simply too talented to contain.
Coty Sensabaugh was the next highest vote getter, with 9 votes, which is a bit of a surprise. Sensabaugh’s interception did come at a critical moment, and did set up a Chris Boswell field goa, but Coty Sensabaugh also bears responsibility for the long bomb the Steelers defense gave up.
Vince Williams came in fifth in the pecking order, after another strong night that included a sack, which was enough to get him six votes. Ryan Shazier and Mike Hilton tied for 6th place with each player polling four votes.
Le’Veon Bell and Stephon Tuitt tied for 7th place with each man garnering 3 votes. Sean Davis was next with 2 votes, followed by Jesse James, Robert Golden and L.T. Walton who got one vote a piece. Both JuJu Smith-Schuster and Martavis Bryant had their moments against the Titans, but neither got a ballot slot and no one saw fit to write their names in.
- On a night when the Steelers offense exploded for 40 points, the one person who found no love was Steelers offensive Todd Haley whose name was on the ballot.
That’s not a terrible shock, given that hatred for Haley runs strong in Steelers Nation, as many fans were quick to point to the usage of the no-huddle to discredit any role Haley had in the Steelers success. Yours truly doesn’t share that opinion, but poll is about what you the readers think, and the readers have rendered their judgement.
Thanks as always go out to all of you who took time to vote. Go Steelers!
