It was bound to happen sooner or later, though it doesn’t make it any less painful. This week the Steelers took on the Colts on in Lucas Oil Stadium and were handed their first loss of the season. Though there were mistakes made on both sides of the ball for the Steelers that lead to a 17-3 deficit in the first half, the second half felt much better as a fan to watch, with the defense stepping up and Justin Fields showing us why he deserves to be the next franchise quarterback for Pittsburgh.
Defense
Pittsburgh’s defense started out slow in this game, even after Anthony Richardson went down after attempting just 4 passes. Early in the first half the Colt’s offense was given too much momentum and scored 2 touchdowns on their first two drives, which absolutely cannot happen unless you want to spend an entire game trying to catch up to the other team on the scoreboard. The second half wasn’t much better either with the Steelers only forcing two punts in the second half. As much as I hate to do it, I also have to give a lot of credit to a former division rival and possibly the best backup in the league, even at the age of 39. I don’t know if the defense just wasn’t altogether or if he still has it, but Joe Flacco played too damn good for being in his 17th season of professional football. The biggest problem that the Steelers defense had this week though was easily the officiating. I mean if you look through the game there are several missed holding calls but none of them hurt as much as the completely bogus unnecessary roughness call on safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, which eventually turned a huge 3rd and 10 into a touchdown that extended the Colts’ lead to 14. That call alone completely changed the course of the game and very well may have been the reason why Pittsburgh suffered their first loss. What makes that call even worse is that the NFL admitted that the call was incorrect, but not until Monday when the scores had already been finalized and nothing could be done.
Offense
Watching this game made me excited for the future of the Steelers’ offense for the first time in probably 5 years. In the first half we didn’t see much in terms of scoring, but the run game with Cordarrelle Patterson filling in for Jaylen Warren looked surprisingly good. I’ll admit, I was nervous this offseason when I heard that Pittsburgh was signing a 33-year-old running back, but he had some very solid runs this week that relieved me of my worries. Patterson had some very good runs, pushing the Steelers into Colts’ territory in the second quarter. Patterson wasn’t the only one that impressed me this week though, as there were multiple Steelers with big plays on Sunday. One of these plays came from tight end Darnell Washington in the second quarter. I can’t remember the last time that I watched someone that’s 6’7″ and 265 stiff arm one man just to jump over the next one. The next player that stood out was George Pickens, totaling 7 receptions for 113 yards on the day. The deep passes down the field and the connection between him and Fields is something that Steelers fans have been waiting for since Big Ben announced his retirement. And how about Justin Fields? Traded for a conditional pick this offseason and expected to be a backup to start the year, he came out in the second half and showed why Russell Wilson will have to fight hard to earn the QB1 spot on the depth chart. The Steelers have NEVER had a quarterback who can both throw and run like Fields does, and if he continues to progress like he has since leaving Chicago, he will see success for years to come. The one thing that killed the Steelers offense this week was miscues from the offensive line. The o-line is still very young and has made some mistakes so far this year, one of them being rookie center Zach Frazier’s mistimed snap that killed the moment of Pittsburgh’s potentially game winning drive late in the fourth. These issues are definitely something that needs to be addressed in practice, but with time this talented offense will figure things out and the Steelers will have one of the best offenses in professional football.