5 Steelers surprises in Sunday’s win against the Jets
Our SCU staff and contributors pick the “surprises” from the Pittsburgh Steelers’ latest matchup each week. Check out more below to see which plays and situations surprised us the most!
The Pittsburgh Steelers picked up their fifth win of the 2024 season with a 37-15 victory over the New York Jets on Sunday. Here are some surprises from that game.
Russell Wilson
The return of Russell Wilson was met with controversy as the Steelers were led to a 4-2 record over the first six games of the season by QB Justin Fields. Fields, a former first round pick who was brought in as a backup after Wilson was signed and last year’s starter, Kenny Pickett, was traded, played mistake-free football and accounted for 10 total touchdowns over those six games.
However, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin went against the public sentiment to stick with Fields and opted to start the 35 year old Wilson on Sunday. Wilson, who hadn’t played in a game since Christmas Eve, had a lot to prove in his first start for Pittsburgh.
Wilson started the game slow, completing 8-of-17 attempts for 145 yards and a touchdown before halftime. He would finish the game strong, however, completing eight of his next twelve attempts to finish the night 16-of-29 for 264 yards, two touchdowns passing and another touchdown rushing.
More surprising was the average yards-per-play for the Steelers:
Steelers QB Russell Wilson was 9-12 for 157 yards utilizing play-action against the Jets. A passer rating of 116.7. Yards per attempt was 13.1, nearly three times as much yards per play as the Steelers were averaging on play-action in their first six games.
— Dale Lolley (@dlolley_pgh) October 22, 2024
Wilson also accounted for some of the longest plays the Steelers offense has seen within the same game in quite some time, with passes of 44, 37, 36, and 30 yards.
Rodgers’ Picks
New York Jets QB Aaron Rodgers is a future Hall of Fame quarterback who is famous for not turning the ball over. Throughout his 20-year career, Rodgers has only had three seasons with double-digit interceptions and never any single year with more than 13 picks.
Imagine the rarity of seeing Rodgers throw not only one, but two interceptions on Sunday Night Football at Acrisure Stadium. Then imagine the surprise that both plays were made by the same player: Steelers rookie CB Beanie Bishop.
Bishop is not only a rookie, but an undrafted rookie that the Jets offense clearly wanted to bully in the game, but instead found the ball in 31’s hands on more than one occasion, including a pick and run that was returned a yards short of a touchdown.
It was a statement game for Bishop, who played a career-high 82% of the game.
Najee Harris
Wilson’s resurgence led to a coming out party for the Steelers stars on offense. One of those beneficiaries was Najee Harris, who ran the ball 21 times for 102 yards (4.9 average) and capped off the Steelers last offensive play in the closing moments of the fourth quarter with a touchdown.
Harris would not be denied as the leading ball carrier out of the backfield, gaining his longest play from scrimmage (and second longest of the season) on a 34-yard scamper during the final quarter.
It would be Harris’ second-straight 100-yard game which also coincides with back-to-back Steelers victories.
George Pickens
All boats rise with the tide, as they say, and George Pickens was another player who benefited from Wilson’s sharp play.
Pickens was all over the field making amazing grabs as he caught five of his nine targets for 111 yards and his first touchdown of the season.
As noted above, Pickens was involved in several big plays, including a second quarter catch for 44 yards, and a third quarter haul-in for 37. Wilson also targeted Pickens prior to the late second quarter touchdown connection, with a pass interference call negating an opportunity to pad Pickens stats further – a 29 yard penalty enforced at the spot that allowed the Steelers to close the scoring gap to 15-13 at halftime.
This would be Pickens second 100-plus yard game this season, previously catching 7 passes for 113 yards against the Indianapolis Colts.
Special Teams
Clips of Steelers special teams coach Danny Smith went viral after his players batted down a pair of kick attempts in Sunday’s game.
Unfortunately, only one of those blocks counted, as Minkah Fitzpatrick was called (and by most accounts, mistakingly) for a leverage penalty on Greg Zuerlein‘s second extra point try of the evening.
Zuerlein would attempt a 35-yard field goal late in the third quarter, but would be thwarted by Steelers DE Dean Lowry. Like the theme of the evening, Lowry was also a former Packer, just not one who joined Rodgers and the Jets!
Lowry’s heads up play would aide the Steelers defense into shutting out the Jets in the second half.
