Steelers winners and losers from week 3 loss vs. 49ers

The Steelers lost their third consecutive game to start the season. Here are Pittsburgh’s winners and losers from the heart-breaking loss.

The Steelers played a very disappointing game in week 3. The odds were stacked against them as they traveled to the west coast to face the 2-0 San Francisco 49ers in Mason Rudolph’s first NFL start.

Though there were some positives to note from the game, there are a lot of players who will share the blame for this one. Here are the winners and losers from the Steelers 20-24 loss to the 49ers:

Winners:

T.J. Watt

Watt was a monster all game long. He got the ball rolling with a crafty interception off a dropped screen pass. He continually harassed Jimmy Garoppolo in this one, and finished the game with 2 pass deflections, 2 quarterback hits, and an interception.

Minkah Fitzpatrick

Fans were anxious to see how Minkah Fitzpatrick would perform in his first action as a Steeler. Pittsburgh gave up a lot to trade for him, so we were hoping to see a return on our investment.

It didn’t take long for Fitzpatrick to get noticed. He had an interception in the first half of the game and forced a fumble in the red zone. Fitzpatrick showed a lot of promise to be the player they were hoping he could be for them.

Stephon Tuitt

Tuitt was a beast in this contest. He got consistent pressure on the quarterback, and he was one of the only defenders who looked good against the run. He is on pace for the best season of his career.

Second half receivers

The Steelers receivers really struggled in the first half of the game. Though there were likely many reasons for this, they were able to get things going in the second half.

JuJu Smith-Schuster kicked things off with a 76-yard catch and run for a touchdown. Shortly after, James Washington drew a big pass interference call and Diontae Johnson had a 39-yard touchdown of his own.

Losers:

Mason Rudolph

Don’t get me wrong: Rudolph really bounced back late in the game with a few nice throws down the field. However, it took way too long for the second-year quarterback to get going. We need to see more from him moving forward.

Randy Fichtner

Fichtner called an extremely conservative game in the first half – so much so that he might have been partially responsible for such a rocky start to the offense today. He was able to turn things around in the second half, as he opened up the defense with some play-action passes and loosened the leash on Mason Rudolph.

Alejandro Villanueva

Villanueva had a rough game that was a capitalized by a costly penalty. Not his best performance.

James Conner

Conner had some tough sledding all afternoon. Unfortunately, his day was highlighted by a fumble that was the dagger for Pittsburgh. He will take the blame for this loss, but there is plenty to go around.

The unfortunate reality is that the Steelers have a very slim chance of making the playoffs after an 0-3 start to the season. Pittsburgh will need to pick things up in a hurry. They can ill afford to drop another game as they host the Bengals on Monday night next week.