Last Monday evening, the Pittsburgh Steelers hosted the winless Miami Dolphins at Heinz Field in a winnable, hopefully beneficial game for the Steelers. Their first game in two weeks, the Steelers came off the break looking to play as a rested, regrouped unit. Without an off week for the rest of the season, it is time for Pittsburgh to make a statement and dismiss the mishaps of earlier in the year if they want to be playing next January.
The Dolphins have struggled all season, and after trading away three starters to begin the season, the idea that they are tanking this season has begun to circulate throughout the league. Tanking, or purposely losing in order to secure some sort of future advantage, such as receiving a high pick in the upcoming draft, has been around in sports for a long time, and is especially prevalent in the NBA, as well as the MLB. That being said, the Steelers needed to make sure that this nearly given win became just that: a win. Not too surprisingly, but still quite welcome none the less, Pittsburgh was able to take care of business during primetime and get started after the bye week with a win.
After the opening kickoff, it wasn’t too pretty. The Steelers dropped behind 7-0 less than five minutes into the game, and by the end of the first quarter Miami had a comfortable 14-0 lead. Ryan Fitzpatrick, the quarterback for the Dolphins, has struggled to throw the ball to the right team so far this season; however, he looked fairly sharp early on Monday night. Despite the strong start, Miami would not find the endzone for the rest of the evening, as the remaining three quarters were all filled exclusively with Pittsburgh points. The Steelers got on the board late in the second quarter with a forty-two yard field goal from Chris Boswell. With seventeen seconds left in the half, Mason Rudolph (back from his scary concussion three weeks ago) completed a forty-five yard touchdown to Diontae Johnson, putting the Steelers within four going into the break.
After halftime, Miami and Pittsburgh exchanged pointless drives until under four minutes left in the quarter when Rudolph found Juju Smith-Schuster for a twenty-six yard score that put Pittsburgh up by three, 17-14. The Steelers did not lose the lead for the remainder of the game, as James Conner ran a nine yard touchdown and Chris Boswell nailed a forty-one yard field goal late in the fourth to secure the win. Despite a fairly shaky start, Mason Rudolph finished 20-36 with 251 yards and two touchdowns with a lone interception. Feature back James Conner stepped up and led the team with 23 rushes, totaling 145 yards and a score. Smith-Schuster, who seems to finally be settling into his number one receiver role, ended with 103 yards on five catches and a a touchdown. Overall, not a bad showing from the Steeler offense, especially after the slow start in the first half. Given, Miami is not a very strong team, but a win is a win.
Another shining highlight from the win was the Steelers pass rush and intense pressure on Ryan Fitzpatrick, especially from linebacker T.J. Watt. He recorded three of Pittsburgh’s ten quarterback hits, two sacks, and forced two fumbles, recovering one. During his third year in the league, Watt has been stringing together quite an impressive stat line, leading an otherwise struggling Pittsburgh defense in hopes of restoring the well-known Steel Curtain of Pittsburgh. The defense as a whole played a crucial part in the victory, holding the Dolphins scoreless in the second half and allowing the momentum to remain with the home team.
With this win, the Steelers jump to second place in the AFC North, behind only the Baltimore Ravens. While Baltimore looks strong for the time being, the Steelers need to take care of business before squaring off against them again in late December. Pittsburgh hosts the Colts and the Rams before heading on the road to Cleveland in hopes of making a divisional statement and possibly securing a position ahead of the Browns in the division. The next few weeks will prove to be crucial if Pittsburgh has any hopes of saving the (not yet lost) season, so tune in next Sunday afternoon and watch the Steelers look to improve their win streak to three games!