The Steelers have not favored well in recent trips to Nashville but this time they took the lead early and never looked back. The Steelers fooled the Titans at the start of the game when Mewelde Moore ran 8 yards and then handed off to rookie Antonio Brown who came around on a reverse and went 89 yards for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead. The play was Brown's first play as starter in the NFL.

Mike Tomlin and the Steelers have heard all the talk about Ben Roethlisberger’s four-game suspension and how they would be lucky to go 2-2 without him. The Steelers are now 2-0 without Big Ben.

The Steeler defense dominated the Titans throughtout the game forcing seven turnovers and four sacks. Jeff Reed kicked four field goals and Pittsburgh defeated the Tennessee Titans 19-11.

“Regardless of our demise being reported, we expect to win,” Mike Tomlin said. “We’re pleased that we’re 2-0, but we’re not astounded by it. We’re capable and we’re a little bit annoyed, to be quite honest, at the pre-reporting of our death.”

Steelers linebacker James Farrior said Tomlin has been mad the past couple weeks at the thought his team would fold without Roethlisberger. “So he has been taking it out on us, and we have been taking it out on the other teams,” Farrior said.

The Steelers secondary intercepted Vince Young twice and sacked him, forcing him to fumble for a third turnover. Titans head coach Jeff Fisher decided to bench Young, hoping backup Kerry Collins might be able to spark the Titans lackluster offense. Bryant McFadden intercepted a pass by Collins to end his first series, and the Steelers recovered a Collins’ fumble on another drive.

Kerry Collins did manage to drive the Titans on a fourth quarter drive by tossing a 2-yard touchdown pass to Nate Washington with 58 seconds left. Collins then converted a 2-point conversion pass to Kenny Britt. The Titans even recovered an onside kick, but McFadden broke up Collins’ pass to Nate Washington in the end zone, and Chris Johnson was tackled after a short pass to end the game.

Jeff Fisher spoke after the game and stated Vince Young will start when Tennessee visits the New York Giants. “I thought we were better than that, and we will learn from it and hang together and bounce back,” Fisher said.

Pittsburgh came into the game having allowed an NFL-low 825 points since the start of the 2007 season. The Steelers came in determined to stop Johnson, the NFL’s leading rusher since 2008. They did just that, holding him to 34 yards on 16 carries to snap his streak of 100-yard games at 12 straight. Johnson fell two shy of Barry Sanders’ NFL record mark of 14 straight in 1997.

“We just wanted to keep him contained to where he could not scat out and run around us,” Steelers linebacker James Harrison said.

Johnson did break loose for an 85-yard touchdown run in the second quarter, but a holding penalty wiped it off the board. He called that a “dagger” in their hearts.

“It came to an end, but the most disappointing thing was not getting the victory …,” Johnson said of his streak. “That is more important than anything. We’re 1-1 now, so we have to get ready for next week and New York.”

Dennis Dixon injured his left knee early in the game, pushing fourth-string quarterback Charlie Batch onto the field. Tennessee kept Pittsburgh out of the end zone, forcing the Steelers to settle for Jeff Reed’s field goals, each coming after a turnover. The Titans had four sacks of their own but came up with only one of Pittsburgh’s four fumbles. They held the Steelers to 127 yards of total offense.

Mike Tomlin said he didn’t know who would start at quarterback next week. The Steelers could re-sign Byron Leftwich, released Saturday so they could add a defensive lineman. Batch said he’d like to start.

Fisher complimented Tomlin for finding a way to win with Dixon’s injury and Batch likely not getting much practice time. “This is the second week in a row that their defense has put them in position to win games,” he said.

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