In the war of attrition within a football game, the team that is ultimately more physical and controls the line of scrimmage is victorious in the end.
That was the case for the Pittsburgh Steelers Sunday at Acrisure Stadium in their 20-10 win over the Los Angeles Chargers to move to 3-0, the fourth time the Steelers have started 3-0 under Mike Tomlin.
For Steelers veteran left tackle Dan Moore Jr., the energy within the game started to shift toward the Steelers’ favor near the end of the first drive of the second half, one in which the Steelers kicked a field goal to tie the game at 10-10.
From there, it was all Steelers on both sides of the football.
“Yeah, think it was the first drive coming out of the half, that first long drive that we had,” Moore said to reporters when asked if the Steelers started to impose their will, according to video via Steelers.com. “We obviously didn’t finish with a touchdown, put three points on the board, but I think at that moment we felt the energy shifting.
“And then obviously our defense feeds off of that. And it just felt like it was going our way.”
Coming out of the half trailing 10-7 after a 62-yard Chris Boswell missed field goal, the Steelers took the kickoff and proceeded to march 50 yards in 12 plays.
On the drive, quarterback Justin Fields hit wide receiver Scotty Miller for an 11-yard gain with 15 more yards tacked on because of a facemask penalty. Fields then hit tight end Pat Freiermuth for a gain of 18, but that was wiped out by an illegal formation penalty.
The Steelers were undeterred as they bounced right back after the penalty by converting a 3rd and 14 as Fields fired a strike to Calvin Austin III for a 25-yard gain.
Three plays later, the Steelers’ drive stalled, leading to a 38-yard Boswell field goal that tied the game 10-10.
At that moment, the Steelers — according to Moore — felt a shift.
That feeling played out as the Steelers’ defense forced the Chargers to go punt, punt, punt, punt in the second half and held the Chargers to just zero net yards of total offense, dominating the final two quarters of play.
Offensively, Pittsburgh’s offense took over, too. Even with a one-play interception drive, the Steelers had three scoring drives in the second half and held the football for more than 18 minutes, physically dominating the Chargers in the process.
That physicality and imposing their will was very evident on the final drive. The Steelers’ run game bludgeoned the Chargers as Cordarrelle Patterson ripped off runs of 14 and 12 yards, and Najee Harris put the capper on the win with a 21-yard run, leading to two kneel downs to seal it.
It was a big test for the Steelers from a physical standpoint. And they stepped up to the challenge, answered the bell and emerged victorious. That first drive in the second half played a key role.
