The Pittsburgh Steelers are a team that has won this season with a strong run game and controlling the ball, and today they won the time of possession battle 33:51 to 26:09 against a team that plays a very similar style in the Los Angeles Chargers. The Chargers’ defense was tired out by Pittsburgh’s approach as QB Justin Fields told reporters that a Chargers linebacker thanked the Steelers for not running a play ahead of the two-minute warning in the first half.
“Any time you can stay on the field as long as possible, definitely tires them out. Second quarter maybe, around the two-minute warning, they were glad that we actually didn’t run a play ’cause they were so tired. Linebacker kinda made a joke over to us, ‘Appreciate y’all,’ because they were so tired, but any time you can keep their defense on the field with the run game and with the play-action pass and have our defense on the sideline resting, that’s a positive for sure,” Fields said after the Steelers’ 20-10 win via the team’s YouTube channel.
Last week, the Chargers won the time of possession battle 38:18 to 23:42, so their defense wasn’t on the field all that long, and when they were, they shut down the Carolina Panthers’ offense. While Pittsburgh struggled running the ball in the first half, it ran for 100 yards in the second half, and one reason for that was its ability to wear down the Los Angeles defense throughout the game.
Ahead of the two-minute warning, the Steelers could’ve gotten a play off after a five-yard completion to TE Pat Freiermuth, but they took it down to the break ahead of a 3rd-and-4 play. It wound up being an incomplete pass, although the Steelers did drive down the field more at the end of the half before Chris Boswell missed a 62-yard field goal.
With Pittsburgh still holding onto the ball with a long scoring drive in the first half, and also running 20 more plays than the Chargers, they did a good job grinding it out and wearing out the Los Angeles defense even without the run game clicking in the first half.
Pittsburgh’s defense deserves some credit too. It forced Los Angeles into a few three-and-outs and got the Chargers’ defense quickly back on the field. T.J. Watt also gave some credit to the depth defensively for keeping that group fresh, too.
“Huge to be able to rotate, to be able to be fresh,” Watt said, adding that there weren’t a lot of plays in the first half, which also helped them stay fresh.
Pittsburgh stayed committed to the ground game even after struggling in the first half, and it outrushed the Chargers in attempts, running 31 times versus 20 for Los Angeles, which entered the game with J.K. Dobbins as the NFL’s leading rusher. The Steelers also ran for 114 yards compared to just 61 for the Chargers, which is because they stuck to the ground game and wore down Los Angeles’ defense, so offensive coordinator Arthur Smith also deserves some credit for that game plan.
This is the third game in a row now where the Steelers have won the time-of-possession battle, and if they can continue to wear teams down, they can keep winning. They’re 3-0 for the first time since 2020, and the rushing ability of Justin Fields and Najee Harris wearing teams down with his size and power has been instrumental. Hopefully, it can continue for the Steelers, who will look to move to 4-0 against the Indianapolis Colts in Week 4.
