Takeaways: Steelers didn’t capitalize in loss to Cowboys
Steel City Underground offers post-game takeaways for every 2024 Pittsburgh Steelers NFL regular season game, focusing on the black and gold, just for members of Steelers Nation.
If you looked solely at the box score or the takeaways total, you might have gone to bed before the end of the weather-delayed prime time Sunday night game between the Steelers and Cowboys at Acrisure Stadium and thought the Steelers would find a way to earn the victory and move to 4-1 on the season. In spite of a positive turnover margin, however, the Cowboys were able to get a touchdown with less than a minute left in the game and win, 20-17. The reason for the loss was that the Steelers never capitalized on those turnovers.
We look at key takeaways that also played a part in the NFL Week 5 loss.
Steelers offense flat early, often
Fans hoped, with the hiring of Arthur Smith as offensive coordinator, that Pittsburgh would have a more dynamic offense. After the offense scored 21 points in the close loss to the Indianapolis Colts, things looked to have finally clicked. Justin Fields appeared to be “the guy” after rushing for two touchdowns, throwing for another.
The pouring rain did delay the kickoff, but it didn’t have a real effect on the performance the Steelers put on display, offensively, Sunday night. The plays were, once again, generic and unexciting. Not that every play has to be a thriller, but asking Fields to run keepers on two of the first five plays on the opening offensive series was not inspiring. On the 11-play drive, the Steelers only walked away with a tying field goal.
Three times the offense stalled before the half, forcing punts from Corliss Waitman.
After halftime, the offense looked like they’d shaken things off. On the first play, at the Pittsburgh 28, Fields threw an incomplete pass but was slammed to the ground late. Forced from the game following an injury timeout, Fields was replaced by Kyle Allen. Allen hit Pat Freiermuth for a 19-yard pass and catch; it was the longest offensive play of the game for Pittsburgh at the time. When Fields re-entered he hit Van Jefferson twice for completions before a strike to Connor Heyward for the Steelers’ first touchdown.
The rest of the offensive output resulted in punt, punt, touchdown (Fields shovel-pass to Freiermuth), and the never-popular lateral shenanigans in the very final seconds of the game much too deep into their own territory and out of time to give Chris Boswell a field goal try.
That was part of the recipe for the failure.
The second part of that recipe was that, despite the efforts of the defense is earning takeaways, the offense could not convert them into points on the scoreboard.
Defense held, until it didn’t
Truthfully, the Steelers defense kept this from being a runaway win by the Cowboys, but even they had some bad moments in this game. They allowed 14 first downs through the air to Dallas, nine rushing first downs, and a third-down efficiency of 9-15. Simply put, they couldn’t get off the field often enough.
Whether it was due to being gassed or just another week with poor communication, the defense was mediocre against the run (they allowed 109 yards of rushing) and got carved up, at times, with Prescott hitting 29-of-42 passes for 336 yards.
On the night that T.J. Watt became the second-quickest player in NFL history to earn 100 sacks, you’d think the energy level would have been much higher.
Yes, Joey Porter Jr. and Donte Jackson grabbed interceptions. Yes, Watt earned 1.5 sacks with Nick Herbig – who left the game with an injury – 0.5 sacks. Isaiahh Loudermilk blocked a field goal attempt. Elandon Roberts made a huge play at the one-yard line, looking like Troy Polamalu, keeping the Cowboys out of the end zone and creating a fumble (Dallas recovered) with time ticking quickly off the clock. Those were all extremely positive things.
In the end, though, the great stops won’t be what was remembered about this game; it will be the plays where they couldn’t stop the run or the pass which forced them to spend so much time on the field. Enough time to fail to stop the Cowboys from scoring the winning touchdown.
https://twitter.com/SteelersLive/status/1843176834306863434?t=JTo1HDhzuPCKd1LYYRIRGw&s=19
