Winners and losers from the Pittsburgh Steelers ’28-27 win against the Washington Commanders Sunday afternoon.
WINNERS
LB Patrick Queen
His best game of the season, Queen was flying around against the run with a pair of tackles for loss. He showed his sideline-to-sideline range, including defending QB runs with Jayden Daniels. Queen also registered a pass breakup and brought good energy to the game. This is the type of game you want to see more often from him in the back half of the season.
WR Ben Skowronek
Skowronek was activated in his first week eligible and resumed his role as a starting gunner. He made an impact by forcing a pair of muffed punt returns, recovering the latter that set up the team’s second touchdown and a 14-7 lead. Skowronek has a knack for defeating blocks and putting the pressure on the return man.
WR George Pickens
Pickens can still frustrate with a lack of focus and seemingly hanging his head at times but there’s more good than bad. His touchdown was a spectacular grab that few receivers could make for the Steelers’ first points of the game. He followed that with a long 34-yard catch and run to set up a touchdown in the second half. In the fourth quarter, QB Russell Wilson hit him with a beautiful touch throw that resulted in another sideline catch.
The clear source of the Steelers’ passing game on what was otherwise a light day.
DL Cam Heyward
Heyward came to play today. He continues to show his power and strength by collapsing the pocket and helping contain the mobile Jayden Daniels. Heyward picked up a pair of sacks in this one to give him five for the season, creating key defensive stops as Pittsburgh battled Washington in the second half.
QB Russell Wilson
It wasn’t the prettiest day, an afternoon when Pittsburgh struggled to get its running game going. Wilson’s completion percentage certainly wasn’t pretty, hovering below or at 50 percent for large chunks of the game. But Wilson hung tough despite taking big shots in the pocket and made plays when he had to. None bigger than his moon ball to Mike Williams to give the Steelers a 28-27 lead late in the fourth quarter.
Wilson is calm and poised and doesn’t let what happened the play before bother him the next play. It was a messy game, but Wilson’s three passing touchdowns are a unicorn in the post-Ben Roethlisberger era. And he still got 28 points on the board. Sometimes, that’s what matters.
And his fourth-down hard count to draw Washington offside was beautiful and speaks to the effectiveness of his cadence.
WR Mike Williams
Welcome to Pittsburgh, Big Mike. His snap counts were predictably reduced in his Steelers debut, but he made them count, tracking and catching a 32-yard touchdown from Russell Wilson on a go-ahead fourth quarter score. Exactly what he got traded for to do. Clutch stuff from him on his new team.
LOSERS
CB James Pierre
An obvious name on this list. Whether you like the call/design or not, Pierre had to catch a wide-open fake punt that would’ve gotten the Steelers a first down and potentially a whole lot more. Instead, he dropped it, and it set up Washington inside Pittsburgh’s red zone for an eventual Austin Ekeler rushing touchdown.
The Steelers helped even things up by recovering a muffed Commanders punt later in the game for their own touchdown but still, Pierre’s play was the story of the first half. The play was there. He just didn’t execute.
In fairness to him, Pierre kept a cool head and made a big third-down breakup on the Commanders’ final drive of the game after replacing the injured Donte Jackson. That helped set up a fourth-down stop and turnover on downs. So Pierre can and should feel much better about this one.
CB Joey Porter Jr.
Ugly game for Porter, flagged multiple times that created Washington first downs. There’s always a line he’s going to walk between utilizing his size and length, but he’s easily crossing a line. Doesn’t need to be that aggressive and he’s been in good position to combat/contest these throws without drawing a flag. Really gave Washington life, especially in the first half. When he wasn’t getting flagged, WR Terry McLaurin caught two key passes against him. One downfield, the other for tons of YAC.
CB Donte Jackson wasn’t much better, and while FS Minkah Fitzpatrick played clean from a penalty standpoint, he and the defense struggled to handle the Commanders’ RPO/play-action game over the middle of the field. Still, Fitzpatrick, like Pierre, came up with a big tackle and stop on fourth-down the play after James Pierre’s breakup.
RB Jaylen Warren
It’s always difficult to put a guy on this list for one play. Warren, to his credit, ran hard during a key fourth-quarter drive. But his fumble on the 1-yard line with the Steelers down six was critical. Yes, it was close to forward progress but with the o-line trying to push Warren into the end zone, the refs fairly let the whole run play out. Warren got the ball ripped away at the very end. Ball security has been his biggest weakness, and it reared its ugly head in a critical time of the game. Defining plays you don’t want to be on the wrong side of.
Defending Middle Of The Field
Defensively, Pittsburgh had trouble on throws over the middle. The Commanders’ RPO and play-action game understandably drew the linebackers up, softening the middle behind him. Pittsburgh gave up a couple catches that way and was fortunate not to allow more with one drop by TE Zach Ertz and a couple of misses by Jayden Daniels to his target that would’ve gone for big chunks.
Tough spot to be in and the defense made its stands when it had to. But Washington had an effective game plan if not always perfect execution.
