For nearly three quarters, the Pittsburgh Steelers did the best they could to keep the Jacksonville Jaguars out of the end zone. Jacksonville eventually got into the end zone on a touchdown pass from QB Trevor Lawrence to RB Travis Etienne, getting behind rookie CB Joey Porter Jr. on a busted play The defense bent a few times before that when the Jags crossed midfield, yielding three field goals in the first half, but managed to come up big with three turnovers.
However, the offense was unable to capitalize on the turnovers the defense provided, getting only three points out of those extra possessions. Former Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger spoke about the frustration the defense must be feeling, having done its part to help get the offense going in a 20-10 loss at home.
“We still gotta go back to three turnovers to none… well three-to-one,” Roethlisberger said on Footbahlin, which aired live on his YouTube channel. “There’s no way that you should lose that game with three turnovers.”
The Steelers technically had two turnovers in the game as QB Mitch Trubisky came in for the injured Kenny Pickett and threw two interceptions in the fourth quarter with one coming with 9:13 left in the quarter and the other at the very end of the game. Roethlisberger stated on the stream he didn’t really count the last pick as it was in desperation time and shouldn’t be padded against Trubisky’s stats.
The Steelers recovered two forced fumbles by LBs Kwon Alexander and Nick Herbig as well as an interception by S Damontae Kazee to get the offense the ball back. The offense wasn’t put in a great spot after Kazee’s interception as he mistakenly ran it out of the end zone and went out of bounds instead of taking a touchback, Oddly enough, that’s the drive Pittsburgh actually scored on, going 93 yards for a Chris Boswell field goal.
If your team wins the turnover battle, normally you win the football game. That’s what Pittsburgh has done in a couple games this season, most notably against the Cleveland Browns game in Week Two. The defense scored two touchdowns in that game and got the ball back several times for the offense thanks to lights-out play by OLBs T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith. However, that wasn’t the case today. The weather, player execution, and the officiating crew got in the offense’s way, causing it to fail to make the most of the gifts the defense provided.
For the first seven games of the season, the Steelers have relied on their defense to keep things close, get turnovers, and give the offense good field position. It appears like that isn’t enough anymore as the Steelers may need their defense to consistently score themselves seeing as the offense isn’t getting it done. Turnovers are a big part of the battle, but you also need to have a running game and the ability to convert on third down and in the red zone to win football games. The offense isn’t doing that, putting the Steelers in a difficult spot as they must get over this loss on a short week with the Tennessee Titans coming to town Thursday night.
