Steelers pound Redskins, 23-6

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By Ryan O'Halloran

Almost as an afterthought last week, Jim Zorn predicted the Washington Redskins' game against Pittsburgh would feature more brawn than beauty.

“It's going to look bad for a while,” he said.

The Redskins' coach was absolutely correct. It got ugly ... for his team.

Unable to capitalize on two early breaks, keep quarterback Jason Campbell upright, collect a sure interception or stop the Steelers on third down, the Redskins crawled into their bye week with a 23-6 loss before a crowd that included an estimated 30,000 Terrible Towel-waving Steelers fans.

After the Redskins kicked two field goals in the opening five minutes despite prime field position, the Steelers flummoxed their offense and took advantage of a blocked punt and interception.

“The thing I know, when you play a team like this, when you have the little opportunity, you have to take advantage of them,” Zorn said. “We didn't, and we paid for it.”

Said running back Clinton Portis: “We wanted to play smash-mouth football. But we got smashed.”

D.C. native Byron Leftwich replaced an injured Ben Roethlisberger at halftime and completed seven of 10 passes for 129 yards and a touchdown.

Wearing all burgundy uniforms for the first time in a while, the Redskins couldn't build on their best start since 2000 and couldn't keep pace in the NFC East with the streaking New York Giants. The Redskins (6-3) could be two games out of the NFC East lead when they play host Dallas on Nov. 16.

The Redskins' first two drives ended in field goals; their last 10 ended with six punts, a blocked punt, the end of the first half, an interception and a turnover on downs at the Pittsburgh 1-yard line.