5 Steelers surprises in Monday’s win over the Colts
Each week our SCU staff and contributors picks the “surprises” from the Pittsburgh Steelers latest matchup. Check out more below to see which plays and situations surprised us the most!
On Monday Night Football, the Pittsburgh Steelers met the Indianapolis Colts for their Week 12 matchup at Lucas Oil Stadium.
The Steelers would rally to victory by a final score of 24-17. Here are some of the surprises from that game.
Jeff Saturday not using his timeouts
A first-time coach at any collegiate or professional level who is now the head coach of the Colts, Jeff Saturday gave the Steelers a gift when he decided to not use any of his timeouts as the close of the fourth quarter.
The Colts received the ball down seven points with 3:52 remaining in the game. They proceeded down to the Steelers 37-yard line at the two-minute warning and that’s when things went haywire.
After a four-yard completion to Michael Pittman for a first down, Matt Ryan would be sacked for a loss of seven yards: the two plays would chew the clock down to 59 seconds remaining on 2nd-and-17.
Ryan would scramble up the field for a gain of 14 yards – and at this point, the Colts still did not use any of their three timeouts!
With 34 seconds left, Ryan handed off to Jonathan Taylor… for no gain!
The Colts finally burned one of those timeouts facing 4th-and-3 from the Steelers 26 with 30 seconds left in the game. Ryan would come out and fire an incompletion to Parris Campbell, effectively ending it right there.
The lack of clock management drew widespread criticism of Saturday and his staff since. All the Steelers can say is “thank you” as a better strategy could’ve seen a different outcome!
Steelers defense yields no yards
The Steelers defense didn’t concede a single yard of offense to the Colts in the first quarter of Monday’s game. It would be the first time since their December 2017 meeting with the Cleveland Browns that Pittsburgh would hold their opponent to zero yards or less in a quarter.
Steelers running game
Even with Najee Harris leaving the game due to an abdominal injury, the Steelers still managed to rush for 172 yards against a solid Colts defense.
Benny Snell would lead all ball carriers with 12 attempts for 62 yards (5.2 YPA) while Anthony McFarland would add 30 yards on six carries.
Kenny Pickett would also get in on the action, adding 32 yards, while Harris finished his day early with 35.
The 172 yards rushing as a team was two yards shy of their passing offense for the evening (174) and represent their second-best output of the season. (Their top game was 217 yards against the Saints.)
Kenny Pickett
The Steelers rookie quarterback may have had his best outing to date on Monday, completing 20 of 28 passes (71.4%) for 174 yards and an 87.5 rating.
While the stats don’t exactly “pop”, Pickett’s performance included a game-winning drive, as well as several other clutch plays. The young Steelers offense also left a few more plays on the field, sometimes the fault of one player or the other.
However, Pickett has now thrown over 100 attempts without an interception and has not turned the ball over since the Steelers returned from their bye week.
Fan turnout
It was announced that Steelers Nation represented an estimated 43% of the entire crowd at the Colt’s Lucas Oil Stadium. Wow, just wow.
It was like a home game away from home!
