Steel City Underground presents our 2024 Steelers Recall: a look back at Pittsburgh Steelers games and storylines from last season.
It was an odd evening for the Steelers. Following their first loss of the season to the Indianapolis Colts, the Steelers entered a primetime encounter hosting the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday Night Football. Unfortunately, weather and poor play spoiled the result for Steeler Nation.
Despite dropping their first game of the season one week earlier, the Steelers were the expected favorites. Reputable sportsbooks such as Ricky’s Casino https://rickys-casino.com/ in Australia had Pittsburgh favored by as much as -2.5 points. That’s not much when talking about the home team, but this was a Cowboys opponent who had struggled leading up to Week 5.
The Steelers, on the other hand, had struggled on offense but complemented those woes with strong defensive efforts. They entered Acrisure Stadium with a 2-2 record while the Steelers were 3-1 behind their unlikely starting quarterback Justin Fields. Fan had hoped the hiring of offensive coordinator Arthur Smith would generate more offense in 2024, but the results had been mixed. Fields mounted a comeback a week earlier in Indianapolis, but despite throwing for two touchdowns, he would have a lackluster performance on national TV.
The offensive plays were, once again, generic and unexciting. Not that every play had to be a thriller, but asking Fields to run keepers on two of the first five plays on the opening offensive series was not inspiring. On the 11-play drive, the Steelers only walked away with a tying field goal. Three times the offense stalled before the half, forcing punts from Corliss Waitman.
After halftime, the offense looked like they’d shaken things off. On the first play, at the Pittsburgh 28, Fields threw an incomplete pass but was slammed to the ground late. Forced from the game following an injury timeout, Fields was replaced by Kyle Allen. Allen hit Pat Freiermuth for a 19-yard pass and catch; it was the longest offensive play of the game for Pittsburgh at the time.
When Fields re-entered he hit Van Jefferson twice for completions before a strike to Connor Heyward for the Steelers’ first touchdown.
The rest of the offensive output resulted in punt, punt, touchdown (Fields shovel-pass to Freiermuth), and the never-popular lateral shenanigans in the very final seconds of the game much too deep into their own territory and out of time to give Chris Boswell a field goal try. Fields would finish the evening 15-of-27 for 131 yards passing. He would also be sacked three times.
George Pickens’ name was a hot subject matter postgame, as head coach Mike Tomlin had to explain why his top receiver was out-snapped by players lower on the depth chart. Of Pittsburgh’s 58 offensive plays, Pickens played 59% of the game, behind Van Jefferson’s 81% and Calvin Austin’s 76%. Scotty Miller played 22% of all snaps while newly acquired Brandon Johnson saw the field for five plays (9%) too.
Pickens was also seen on the sidelines jawing before Broderick Jones and Russell Wilson calmed him down, and then nearly started a fight at the end of the game.
Pickens final state line? Three receptions on seven targets for 26 yards and no touchdown.
Pickens wasn’t the only offensive disappointment, as the Cowboys came into town with the 27th run defense and were without their top two edge rushers, who are league-wide stars, Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence. One would assume this would be a big day for Najee Harris, but Harris struggled, as did his offensive line, as he carried the ball 14 times for 42 yards – a 3.0 yards-per-carry average.
Practice squad call ups Aaron Shampklin and Jonathan Ward spelled Harris. Shampklin had four carries for 14 yards (3.5 YPC) while Ward ran twice for nine yards (4.5 YPC). The Steelers failed to rush for over 100 yards for the first time this season, despite Justin Fields carrying the ball six times for 27 yards in addition to those noted above.
For as woeful as the offense was, the Steelers defense was on point, forcing Dak Prescott and the Cowboys to turn the ball over three times: and nearly a fourth time near the conclusion of regulation. Prescott was sacked by T.J. Watt and Nick Herbig for the final play of the first quarter, as Watt stripped the quarterback of the ball and Herbig recovered.
It would be Watt’s 100th career sack, a milestone he hit faster than any other player in the NFL other than Hall of Famer Reggie White.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for the Steelers defense. The unit would give up 445 yards to the Cowboys, allowing 60% of their opposition’s third downs to be converted as well as a fourth-down conversion. They gave up 25 first downs total on 75 of the Cowboys offensive plays, a whopping one in every three plays moving the chains.
While the defense forced Prescott to turn the ball over three times, they struggled to contain him for much of the evening, as the Dallas QB completed 69% of his passes for 352 yards and two touchdowns.
Those defensive storylines would pale in comparison to the sequence of events that unfolded after the Steelers took a 17-13 lead with five minutes left in the game.
The Cowboys would run the football on six of their first eight plays on the ensuing possession, running the clock down to the two-minute warning. Rico Dowdle would carry the ball four times for 20 yards during the first set of plays. Prescott would then find his tight end Jake Ferguson on a third-and-nine to convert with 1:26 to go. The pass got the Cowboys out to the Steelers 22-yard-line, as Dallas marched up to the four and then a Prescott scramble on first-and-goal would be ruled out-of-bounds setting up a second down situation on the half-yard line.
The Steelers nearly came away with a miracle play when LB Elandon Roberts punched the football from Dowdle’s grasp on a goal line dive attempt, but Prescott would recover the loose football back at the five yard line. An incomplete Prescott pass on third down setup a do or die 4th-and-4 with 26 seconds and the game on the line.
The Cowboys would spend a timeout before the Steelers would burn their last to setup the game’s deciding play. The Steelers defense came out of the break, and failed to send a blitz, allowing Prescott time to scan the field and find an open receiver for the game-winning touchdown.
The deflating final play, following the timeout, seemed to be an exclamation point on long night that officially ended at 12:59 a.m. Monday morning due to the weather delay. The conditions created sloppy play on both sides, and exposed a gassed Steelers defense that had already bent but failed to break until the very end.
Pittsburgh would lose their second game of the season by a final score of 20-17, with a trip to Las Vegas up next in Week 6. Would Russell Wilson finally play? Could the defense recover from this deflating defeat? Stay tuned as we explore each game of the 2024 Pittsburgh Steelers season in our Recall series.
2024 Steelers Season Recall: Cowboys deal Steelers second-straight loss appeared first on Steel City Underground.