Every Tuesday from now on I will share my picture of the week. The picture that I will choose from week to week will be sports related and this post I have chosen Monday Night Football. This picture is of the Pittsburgh Steelers Defense.
Before I get to the rest of this post, I would like to point out that today is election day. I have casted my votes and eagerly wait the results of the elections. Now you might be asking yourself "what does MNF have to do with the primary elections?" I will gladly answer that question right after I give my break down of the football game that took place last night in Washington D.C..
The game didn't take long to get exciting at Fed Ex Field. After the Washington Redskins won the toss over the Pittsburgh Steelers and elected to receive the football first, the Steelers lined up to kick off and tried to surprise a well aware Redskin team with an onside kick. The Redskins retained possession of the ball and proceeded to dance with the number one defense in the NFL, in the Pittsburgh Steelers. One minute and fifty nine seconds and nine yards later Shaun Suisham kicked a 44 yard field gaol to put the Redskins up 3-0. When the Steelers received the ball back for their second possession of the game, Ben Roethlisberger threw his first interception of the game. Three plays later Suisham kicked another field goal that was good from 43 yards out to make the score 6-0 Redskins with only 3:59 off the clock in the first quarter.
The Steelers didn't get on the board until the second quarter courtesy of a Jeff Reed 35 yard field goal. With 2:11 left in the first half of the football game, Ben Roethlisberger called his own number from the one yard line to score the game's first touchdown and a Jeff Reed extra point kick attempt made the score 10-6 Steelers. This wold be the last of the action Steeler fans would see of 'Big' Ben Roethlisberger due to an injury he suffered during that scoring drive. Not that the Redskins fans would mind much, but Ben would not return to the gridiron in the second half.
Pittsburgh wouldn't score again until the third quarter, when running back 'Fast' Willie Parker ran for a 1 yard touchdown making the score 16-6 Steelers. The last touchdown came in the fourth quarter when Steeler backup quarterback Byron Leftwich threw a five yard touchdown pass to Santonio Holmes making the final score 23-6 after a Jeff Reed extra point kick.
You might have noticed that I haven't mentioned much for the Redskins offensive side of the ball. That's because after the first four minutes, there wasn't any. Redskins running back Clinton Portis who not only leads all running backs in the NFL in rushing yards, but also has accumulated at least 120 yards rushing in the past five games in a row. Monday night he was help to only 51 yards rushing. The only time that the Redskins came close to scoring again is when they went for a touchdown pass on fourth down on the Redskin one yard line. However they came up short as they did all night due to the ridiculously tough Steeler defense. The Steeler defense kept the Redskins out of the end zone, which is something that other teams haven't been able to do for 33 years. Pittburgh's defense also gobbled up Jason Campbell, the Washington Redskin quarterback 7 times and intercepted him twice.
Now to the question you might have been asking yourself while reading this post. "What does MNF have to do with the primary elections?" Well here it is...For the past fourteen times that the Washington Redskins have played on Monday night, their victory or demise seems to play a role in whether or not the current party in the Whitehouse stays or changes. If Washington wins the ball game, the current party stays the same with the new President-elect. On the other side, which has happened more times than the latter, when they lose on Monday night, the party in the Whitehouse changes. Well this Monday prior to the primaries, the Redskins lost. So will past trends hold? We will find out in a few hours...
***The picture of the Pittsburgh Steelers that I have shown above was taken by Al Bello/Getty Images and is found on espn.com.
