The Pittsburgh Steelers couldn’t have started off any better against the Tennessee Titans.
And they couldn’t have finished any worse.
But even so, a missed field goal by Stephen Gostkowski preserved the Steelers’ undefeated record, and Pittsburgh held on for a 27-24 win in Nashville despite a fourth-quarter collapse. With the win, the Steelers are 6-0 for the first time since 1978.
The Steelers couldn’t replicate the recipe that worked in the first half, grinding out long drives to keep monster running back Derrick Henry on the sideline and swallowing him up with tackles behind the line of scrimmage whenever he got on the field.
After winning the coin toss, the Steelers elected to receive the ball and went on a 9-minute, 18-second drive that ended with a Diontae Johnson touchdown, marking their first opening-drive TD since Week 15 of the 2018 season against the Patriots.
The defense complemented the score with a three-and-out to hand the ball right back to the offense for another long scoring drive, putting the Steelers up 14-0.
Including the playoffs, Ben Roethlisberger is 98-1-1 in his career in games in which the Steelers have a 14-point lead, the only loss coming in Week 13 of 2018 vs. the Chargers and the tie in Week 1 of that same season at the Browns.
The Steelers capitalized on the Titans’ below-average third-down defense, converting 8 of 9 attempts for their highest third-down conversion percentage in a half over the past 20 seasons, according to ESPN Stats & Information. And they also kept Henry from doing much of anything in the first half, hitting him at or behind the line of scrimmage on four of his eight first-half rushes. Henry had only three such rushes all of last week against the Texans, according to ESPN Stats & Info. Pittsburgh linebacker T.J. Watt was crucial in stopping Henry, coming up with two tackles of the big back at the line of scrimmage. He also added a sack of Ryan Tannehill.
With that formula, the Steelers built a dominating lead at halftime, up 24-7 for the second week in a row. After the break, the Steelers added a field goal for a 27-7 lead and a score on each of their first four possessions, but then the Titans ripped off 17 unanswered points as Henry got going and Tannehill heated up. On the other side of the ball, the Titans kept the Steelers from going on lengthy drives that ate clock in the first half.
Roethlisberger (32 of 49, 268 yards, 2 TD, 3 INT) entered Sunday’s game with just one interception in five games, but he doubled that total with a throw to end the half as safety Dane Cruikshank intercepted him in the end zone on the final play before halftime. He added another one in the fourth quarter as Jeffrey Simmons tipped Roethlisberger’s pass at the line of scrimmage and Jayon Brown came down with it. But the most costly came as the Steelers were driving with a three-point lead with 2:35 left and Amani Hooker snagged another Roethlisberger pass in the end zone to end a 16-play drive.
But the missed field goal by Gostkowski kept the Titans from making the Steelers pay for the Roethlisberger interception.