By Ray Porter Jr.
INDIANAPOLIS, IN–The key to the Pittsburgh Steelers 3-0 start has been their defense. In three games, they had only allowed 8.6 points per game and only 71 yards per game, good for a #1 ranking. Plus, they knew how to sack the QB after 5 sacks in their 20-10 win vs. the LA Chargers last Sunday. When they traveled to Indianapolis to face the 1-2 Colts, the Steelers plan was to impose their will for a fourth time against their opponent with hopes of their third road win in the 2024 NFL season.
Unfortunately, the Colts had other plans as they welcomed the Steelers to Lucas Oil Stadium and sent them back home after beating them 27-24.
“First, I got to give credit to the Indianapolis Colts,” said Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. “I thought they really brought it, particularly at the beginning of the game, but the beginning of the games don’t really kind of define games. It’s just the beginning.”
Unfortunately, the beginning of this game had plenty of definition for the Steelers and it wasn’t good as the Colts punched them in the mouth en route to a 14-0 first quarter lead. QB Anthony Richardson (3/4, 71 yards) stunned the Steelers the first time he touched the ball as he found WR Michael Pittman (6 rec,113 yards) for a 42-yard pass, and eventually RB Jonathan Taylor (21 carries, 88 yards) barreled into the endzone on a 2-yard run and a 7-0 lead. And even though Richardson was knocked out of the game on the Colts 2nd drive, veteran backup QB Joe Flacco came in and he kept it going as he found WR Josh Downs (8 rec, 88 yards) for a 4-yard TD and a 14-0 lead. A Matt Gay FG extended their lead to 17-0 before Steelers K Christ Boswell’s FG made it 17-3 at halftime.
The Steelers tried to turn things around “I thought we had plenty of opportunities. I appreciate the fight of our group.” Said Tomlin “I told them, I just told them that, but not that I’m congratulating them for it. Fight is required in this business, but I am acknowledging it, and it is appreciated.”
But Tomlin was clear on why they lost: “We were sloppy in a lot of ways. You just don’t win football games versus motivated groups in their venue playing the way that we played today in certain instances…, we dropped interception opportunities. We had a fumble on the ground defensively that we did not get on, and then we turned the ball over offensively – one time in the red zone.”
Steelers QB Justin Fields (22/34. 312 yards, TD, 2 rushing TD) did all he could to get them back in the game, but unfortunately some of the sloppiness was a result of his actions as he fumbled the ball twice and recovered it once. But his 2 TD runs helped close their deficit and his TD pass to TE Pat Freiermuth brought them to within 3 (27-24) late in the 4th quarter, but when they got the ball on their final drive with hopes of a tie of a game-winning TD, the sloppiness ended their chances.
Flacco filled in admirably for Richardson as he finished passing for 168 yards and 2 TDs. He also made no mistakes.
“I thought we had some nice things going with downs in particular, some option routes. In particular, I thought we got comfortable there in the third quarter.” Said Tomlin. “When you work all week to defend (Anthony) Richardson and then you get (Joe) Flacco it’s a little bit different, and it probably took us a little too long to adapt and adjust in some areas.”
When Tomlin was asked about Fields performance, he replied “Again, I appreciate his fight, but he and we were a little bit sloppy at times, too sloppy to comfortably secure victory.”
After losing their first game of the season, the Steelers must now learn from this return home and prepare to play the 2-2 Dallas Cowboys Next Sunday Night, and despite their record, the Cowboys know how to get into the end zone.
“We were just generally not as sharp as we needed to be in order to function with the level of fluidity that allows comfortable victory to take place.” Said Tomlin “So, we’ll learn from it. We’ll learn, obviously, with an L, and that’s a component of this business that we have to absorb, and we will.”
Notes: Tomlin addressed the injuries “James Daniels is being evaluated with an ankle. C. (Cordarrelle) Patterson, same thing ankle. We have some bumps and bruises along the way, but that’s the nature of this thing. It didn’t determine the outcome of this game, our quality of our play or the lack thereof did, and I own that. We own that.”
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