2022 Steelers Season Recall: Pittsburgh slips to 2-5 in South Beach

Steel City Underground presents our 2022 Steelers Recall: a look back at Pittsburgh Steelers games and storylines from last season.

Week 7 of the NFL’s 2022 regular season saw the Pittsburgh Steelers travel to Miami, Florida to face the Dolphins in what would be only the third time the latter has hosted a Sunday Night Football game in the last twenty years.

The host pulled out all of the stops for this showcase between young quarterback talent, as they wore throwback uniforms, decorated the endzones in retro fashion, and invited back legends from the team’s undefeated 1972 Super Bowl team.

Embed from Getty Images

The fanfare alone was almost enough to overshadow what felt like a 50/50 split of supporters in the stands, as Steelers Nation invaded Hard Rock Stadium.

The other storyline heading in was that of the two young quarterbacks: rookie Kenny Pickett and third-year pro Tua Tagovailoa. Both passers were entering the primetime contest having come out of the league’s concussion protocol, so it was unknown how this might affect their play early on.

For a 2-4 Steelers franchise that just bested Tom Brady at home one week earlier, this was a chance to keep their rebound momentum going. Yet, the game started heavily in the Dolphins’ favor. Miami took the opening kickoff and drove nine plays, 76 yards for a Tagovailoa pass to Raheem Mostert to put the Dolphins up 7-0.

The first quarter was woeful for the Steelers offense, as they ran a total of five plays, with their first drive ending in a punt and the second an interception, as Pickett attempted to connect with WR Chase Claypool. The Dolphins would capitalize on both plays with Jason Sanders field goals, the first of which the Steelers held their opponent in check from their own six-yard line, preventing a worse case scenario of giving up a TD.

Miami would score three times in the first quarter, before the Steelers would answer with a 45-yard field goal from Chris Boswell. The Steelers next possession would be a 13-play, 86-yard touchdown drive which finished with Pickett finding rookie WR George Pickens, closing the Dolphins advantage to 13-10.

Pittsburgh’s defense was still confused by Tagovailoa’s southpaw stance, as the left-handed thrower was able to find receivers for large gains during the two-minute drill to put his side up 16-10 at halftime.

What followed would be an ugly series of second-half football for both offenses, as the Dolphins got greedy and turned the ball over on downs with their first second-half drive, then punted five consecutive times.

Pittsburgh would be equally bad, punting five-straight, then forcing two different throws that ended in interceptions off of double-digit, 62-yard drives which nearly ended with a Pickett to Diontae Johnson come-from-behind touchdown. Instead, Dolphins cornerback Noah Igbinoghene, who was picked on all night by the Steelers, made the game-sealing play for a pick.

Tua’s kneel down at the end would secure a 16-10 final for Miami.

Defensively, the Steelers had the opportunity to earn takeaways of their own and could not seem to come away with the turnovers. Yes, it was raining off and on throughout the game… but that didn’t keep the Dolphins from taking advantage. Levi Wallace had a chance at two takeaways, and both Cameron Sutton and Terrell Edmunds had near interceptions.

The thing that makes that heartbreaking was that the Pittsburgh defense actually held Miami to just three points following the first half. In fact, neither offense scored in the second half of the game, period. The Steelers fell to 2-5 ahead of a meeting with a 6-0 Philadelphia Eagles team that was firing on all cylinders…


Suggested articles from our sponsors