2020 Steelers Season Recall: Steelers break streak in shootout against the Colts
Steel City Underground presents our 2020 Steelers Recall: a look back at Pittsburgh Steelers games and storylines from last season.
With only two weeks remaining in the 2020 NFL regular season, things were looking bleak for the Pittsburgh Steelers – losers of their last three games, after starting the season a perfect 11-0.
The Steelers latest loss was a blunder, a 27-17 embarrassment on Monday Night Football to a two-win Cincinnati Bengals franchise.
Week 16’s opponent would offer a greater challenge, as the 10-4 Indianapolis Colts were jockeying for playoff positions, while the Steelers still hadn’t officially clinched their own division entering the final home game of the season at Heinz Field.
Things started off shaky for the Steelers, who’s offense went a typical three-and-out after receiving the ball to begin the first quarter.
Philip Rivers orchestrated a 9-play, 70-yard scoring drive for his Colts on their first possession, as Indy chunked together plays of 26, 11, 15, and 11 yards to march down the field in under five minutes of elapsed game time.
The Steelers and Colts were each able to convert first downs on their next drives but neither put points on the board.
The Steelers next drive would flow into a three-and-out, and a punt to start the second quarter still trailing by seven points.
That’s when T.J. Watt would strike, strip-sacking Rivers on the first Colts play from scrimmage and setting the Steelers offense up on the Colts three-yard line.
Pittsburgh would fail to get in on the first three tries, but a defensive offside penalty gave the Steelers one more shot on 3rd-and-1, with James Conner punching it in over the goal line to knot the score at seven-all.
Unfortunately, the Steelers offense wouldn’t do anything else while the Colts could do no wrong.
Indy would score again on a 12-play, 85-yard drive as Pittsburgh failed to answer with another three-and-out. Nyheim Hines would have a solid punt return, as a Justin Layne illegal block penalized Pittsburgh further and gave the Colts the ball on the Steelers 43.
Two plays later, Rivers would find Zac Pascal for a 42-yard touchdown as the stunned Steelers fans in attendance watched their team trail 21-7.
The Steelers would get two chances to gain some points, but ultimately entered halftime down by 14.
The Colts would open more sore wounds on a long opening drive to start the second half, but Stephon Tuitt would get to Rivers for a sack and force a field goal – a timely win for the defense.
The Steelers would then take over on offense, driving to the Colts 1-yard line, but conceding a loss of a yard on a Benny Snell run stuffed at the goal line – followed by three incomplete Roethlisberger passes and a turnover on downs, with no points gained.
Things looked bleak, but the Steelers defense took advantage of the short field and forced the Colts to punt after a three-and-out. Lightning would strike on first down as Roethlisberger went deep for Diontae Johnson – the single play of the drive resulting in a 39-yard touchdown.
Down 10 points, the Steelers applied more pressure to Rivers and the Colts, as Avery Williamson set the tone with a sack. The Colts would go three-and-out, making way into the fourth quarter for the improbable Steelers comeback.
Big Ben would go into no huddle mode, finding James Washington, James Conner, Chase Claypool, and then drawing a pass interference penalty when going deep to Johnson once again.
The 5-play drive for 74 yards would be capped off by an Eric Ebron touchdown reception, closing the Colts lead to 24-21 in only 1:51 of game time.
Rivers would struggle again, placing the ball into Roethlisberger’s hands for another lengthy drive of 84 yards, as Big Ben would pass 8 out of the 10 plays, connecting this time with JuJu Smith-Schuster for what would be the game’s final points.
But at the time, we didn’t know it!
All seemed lost when Rivers was picked off on the next Colts drive by Mike Hilton, but the Steelers would fail to capitalize with points and Indy still had a shot with a little over two minutes left in the game.
A Steven Nelson interception was negated by pass interference, keeping the Colts drive alive on fourth down. Rivers would pass seven more times, with the final three falling short of their targets – and the Steelers offense taking the field to burn the rest of the clock in victory formation, winning by a final of 28-24 and improving to 12-3 on the season.
