The Pittsburgh Steelers registered a comprehensive victory over the Washington Redskins 27-12 at Heinz field Sunday.
Rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III couldn't do much for the Redskins. He completed only 16 of 34 passes for 177 yards. He got very little help from his teammates. The Steelers did not let Griffin steal the show.
Steelers defensive end Brett Keisel said: "We didn't want to get too creative. We just wanted to play the way we know how."
The Steelers (4-3) treated Griffin the way they treated Eli Manning and Joe Flacco. "It is very frustrating," the rookie quarterback said. "You want to go out, be successful, execute plays and have everything work for you and then when you have a day like today when you have almost nothing work for you."
The Redskins (3-5) looked out of sorts dropping 10 passes. The receivers were of no help to Griffin.
Redskins Coach Mike Shanahan said: "To come into this environment and win, you've got to play one of your better games, both offensively, defensively and special teams. We did not do that."
The Redskins ran for a season-low 86 yards and Griffin's longest run came in the first quarter on a seven-yard sprint.
Pittsburgh linebacker Larry Foote said: "He wasn't running all over the place. The front seven got challenged by Mike Tomlin (Steelers coach) all week and they delivered."
Sunday's game was the second consecutive loss for the Redskins, their record falling to 3-5.
"It's not what anyone wants and for us to have won today, we needed a few of those plays to be big plays instead of drops. And it didn't go our way offensively," Redskins' tight end Chris Cooley added.
Linebacker Lorenzo Alexander had reasons to be unhappy and frustrated with the way the Redskins performed in Sunday's game.
"It is disappointing because you work so hard to play, to compete at a high level. And any time you come out and lay an egg like we did today, it's embarrassing and frustrating at the same time."
Despite having linebacker London Fletcher on their defense, the Redskins were not able to stop the Steelers from scoring on their first four possessions. They built up a huge 20-6 lead at halftime.
"Defensively we definitely didn't play well enough in the first half and they were able to move the ball," Fletcher said.
Griffin who was unable to impress this time did not blame anybody and said that winning games was important at the end of the day. "We lost the game, that's all that matters. You're judged by wins and losses. I feel as bad as anyone else in that locker room right now."
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