All I can say is, 'Wow'! What an incredible and improbable win the Steelers pulled off on the road against the Washington Commanders. We certainly made the game interesting, to say the least. After squandering a seven-point lead in the second quarter, we found ourselves behind by three points at halftime.
As good as we looked putting up those fourteen points was as bad as we looked surrendering the seventeen points that put us 'behind the eight ball' at the break. Fortunately for us, an NFL game is sixty minutes long. We need almost every minute to secure our seventh win of the season.
Let's see what we learned on the offensive side of the ball.
Steelers' offense 'pounded the rock'
First, let me say the 'old school' in me loved that we outran the Commanders by eighty yards, which had a direct effect on not only winning the time of possession battle but, ultimately, winning the game. I vividly remember those 1970s Steelers teams that could impose their will, so to speak, on almost any team by simply running the ball better and more effectively than their opponent.
Again, I am 'old school' and I appreciate a good rushing attack, but this is the 2024 NFL and to win consistently, you have to be able to throw the ball efficiently and effectively. Russell Wilson did not have a particularly stellar game against the Commanders, but he made a throw late in the fourth quarter that proved to be the difference in the game.
Trailing by six points late in the fourth quarter, Wilson found Mike Williams, our newly acquired wide receiver via a trade deadline deal, one-on-one with a Commanders defensive back trying to maintain pace. Wilson's throw to Williams was exactly what the Steelers needed at the exact moment we needed it.
At the end of the game, Wilson and the offense had managed to score one more point than the Commanders but outgained them in total plays, total yards, rushing yards, and time of possession. I have said this before and I will say it again, winning the time of possession generally equates to a victory and it did.
Let's see what we learned on the defensive side of the ball.
Pittsburgh's defense epitomized the 'bend but don't break' mentality
As I stated at the outset of our discussion, the Steelers squandered a seven-point lead and trailed the Commanders by three points at halftime. To top it off, the defense gave up a big 'chunk' plays, as Mike Tomlin likes to say, to start the third quarter and we found ourselves in a ten-point hole right out of the gate.
Frankly, at that point, I started to reconcile the fact that we may lose this game. I wondered what I would 'say' as part of our discussion, but, fortunately, I don't have to worry about that. It just seemed like the defense was 'out of sorts'.
We committed too many penalties on the defensive side of the ball for my liking. We allowed three first downs via penalties. The performance of Joey Porter Jr. was most concerning to me. He simply was not playing at the level we have become accustomed to seeing.
Porter was not the only player whose performance caught my attention, but we won so it's water under the bridge, as it were. Cameron Heyward and newcomer Preston Smith accounted for the three sacks the defense was able to generate.
READ MORE: Mike Tomlin shows no remorse for Steelers' game-altering decisions in Week 10
In typical Steelers fashion, the defense 'knuckled down' and gave up only three points for the rest of the game. Believe me, this game was too close for comfort. The outcome hung in the balance until the Commanders' defense committed a false start late in the fourth quarter to hand us the victory.
Let's see what else we learned.
Steelers escaped with a one-point victory but flaws were exposed
To say that the Steelers escaped with a one-point road victory would be a fitting way to describe what we witnessed against the Commanders. To paraphrase Mike Tomlin, it's good to work on our flaws or shortcomings with a win under our collective belt.
Tomlin and the rest of the coaching staff will have much to sift through after this game. The offense scored twenty-eight points but it took until the fourth quarter to do it. The defense gave up several big plays and twenty-seven points to boot.
To say that Arthur Smith and Teryl Austin did not call their best games would be an understatement. Coming off the bye week, I expected us to look more crisp on both sides of the ball. Again, a win is a win. I'll take the win, but if we desire to play meaningful football in January, we need to get back in the lab quickly.