Pierre, defense won't apologize for finishing on top taken at Heinz Field (Steelers)

JUSTIN K. ALLER / GETTY

James Pierre intercepts a pass in the fourth quarter against the Broncos at Heinz Field Sunday.

With do-it-all-cornerback Cam Sutton sitting out with a groin strain, the Steelers used a lot of different players Sunday to help replicate his play against the Broncos.

Arthur Maulet and Tre Norwood subbed in as the nickel cornerback. There were times when the team used Robert Spillane as their inside linebacker in the dime defense to serve as an additional run stopper.

But there was only one player who was out there for Sutton on a full-time basis. Second-year cornerback James Pierre drew that task opposite Joe Haden. And with a young defensive back in the game, the Broncos went after Pierre -- a lot.

He won some, he lost others. But in the end, it was two big plays by Pierre that helped the Steelers hold off the Broncos, 27-19, at Heinz Field, snapping their three-game losing streak.

Najee Harris, Ben Roethlisberger and the offense, did their part, as well, as the Steelers (2-3) scored more than 17 offensive points in a game for the first time this season, but it was the plays that Pierre, an undrafted rookie a year ago, stepped up and made that might have been the most significant in the moment.

Yes, there was some bad. The Broncos went after Pierre consistently, using max protection to get him alone on an island with wide receivers Courtland Sutton and Tim Patrick, among others.

That led to plays such as this 39-yard touchdown pass from Teddy Bridgewater to Sutton with 5:46 remaining in the game that pulled the Broncos (3-2) to within one score at 24-19.

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It would have been easy to pout after giving up that play. But Pierre stayed the course, listening to veteran cornerback Joe Haden and defensive backs coach Teryl Austin.

"He stayed in the fight," Mike Tomlin said of Pierre. "Young guys, they are going to come after you. They’re going to get some plays. You going to have to make some plays. It's an education of a corner in the National Football League. I appreciate his mentality. He was tough-minded about it and stayed in the fight. I appreciate some of the veteran leadership that he has and support that he has. A guy like Joe Haden talking you through those moments and helping you through a football game is significant and I just can't say enough about Joe's efforts in terms of nurturing him and helping him grow in those ways as well."

And what did Austin tell him?

"Keep my eyes on my work. That’s what I did," Pierre said. "Take two steps and then look back and look back for the ball. It was an out-of-body experience. It was crazy."

The play to which Pierre referred was the Steelers' final defensive snap of the game. The defense had limited the Broncos to just over 200 yards of offense through three quarters. But as Denver went to a hurry-up offense down three scores, the Broncos began to find some success.

Though the Steelers tacked on a 43-yard field goal after that Sutton touchdown to extend their lead to 27-19, the Broncos got the ball back on their on 25 with 2:29 remaining. Bridgewater connected with Patrick for a 23-yard gain. Then, he later got another big chunk of 23 yards to Kendall Hinton to the 9 with 56 seconds remaining.

Haden had a breakup on Patrick in the end zone on first down, then Bridgewater dumped the ball to Javonte Williams for a 6-yard gain on second down. On third down, Terrell Edmunds kept a pass from being completed to Diontae Spencer, setting up a fourth-down play.

"He told me, 'It happens,'" Pierre said of his advice from Haden. "You've just got to try and win more than you lose. Doing what we do at cornerback, everybody sees it, so you have to be technically sound every time. Every play counts at corner."

Everyone in the building knew where the ball was going -- to whomever Pierre was covering, in this case, Sutton again.

"I knew where the ball was going," Pierre admitted.

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His first career interception touched off a celebration in the end zone among everyone but Cam Heyward, who dropped to one knee and stayed there well after many of his teammates had ceased jumping up and down. Finally, Heyward, spent from his exhaustion, trudged off the field to join his teammates on the sideline and enjoy the hard-earned victory.

"I'm appreciative of all the effort in all three phases to produce it," Mike Tomlin said. "It was not without its challenges but that's what we expect on Sunday, this level of football, but we needed this one today. Obviously was a big one, and the guys responded in a big way from start to finish. I just like the way we came out of the locker room and just continued to fight and complement one another."

The score wasn't necessarily indicative of how well the Steelers played throughout the day both offensively and defensively.

They dominated the first half, outgaining the Broncos, 248-107, as they built a 17-6 lead. But the lead could have been less if not for a hustle play by Pierre with the Steelers leading 10-3 midway through the second quarter.

Facing third-and-1 at their own 49, the Broncos had yet to record a first down in the game, scoring a field goal after a strip-sack of Roethlisberger handed them the three points. But Bridgwater flipped a pitch to the outside and Williams got to the corner and raced down the middle of the field for what looked like it would be a game-tying touchdown.

Pierre, however, tracked him down at the 2, wrestling him to the ground.

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That proved critical, as Williams was penalized five yards for delay of game for spiking the ball in the middle of the field, pushing the Broncos back to the 7. And when Devin Bush sacked Bridgewater for a 12-yard loss on second down, Denver was forced to kick a field goal to cut the lead to 10-6.

That one play by Pierre was a four-point swing.

"My mindset was for the team," Pierre said. "I saw Joe running, so I did the same thing."

"Big time. Big-time hustle play," Tomlin said.

The Steelers wound up giving up 374 total yards, but nearly half of that came in the fourth quarter. And Denver was just 2 of 12 on third downs, though it did convert three fourth downs in the final 15 minutes -- before failing on the final one.

But this was a team that just needed a win -- no matter how it came.

• Now, about that offense.

Roethlisberger opened quickly just as he did last week in Green Bay by hitting Diontae Johnson with a long touchdown pass -- this time for 50 yards. The combination clicked for 45 yards against the Packers on the opening drive. 

Meanwhile, Harris recorded his first 100-yard rushing game Sunday, finishing with 122 yards on 23 carries and also scoring on a 1-yard leap into the end zone in the third quarter.

But this was all about that much-maligned offensive line. It had been spotty in the first three weeks to say the least. But it showed signs of coming around in last week's 27-17 loss. This week was an outright epiphany. Denver had just one sack. Roethlisberger had all day to throw and Harris had plenty of running room.

This was what the Steelers' offense was supposed to look like this season. Roethlisberger threw the ball just 25 times. The Steelers ran it 35 times.

"I thought he did great tonight. But the running game is more than just one person," Roethlisberger said. "The line has to open things up and they did that. I wish I could give you a better percentage. I don't want to say a wrong number. But a very high percentage of those runs today, from the shotgun especially, were RPOs. We probably had some of the throws, but why take it out of his hand when you're grinding it and you're getting it? It was fun to watch him excel and take over."

He did that because the line was dominant from the start. Harris had 35 rushing yards on his first seven carries. And the Steelers just stuck with it, Harris carried the ball 13 times on first downs in the game -- the Steelers only had 19 first downs -- and gained 47 yards on those runs. Yes, that's only 3.6 yards per carry, but one of those came at the goal line, and he scored on the next play.

For a team that had been struggling to run the ball, running it when the other team knows you're running it was a big step.

"I think (offensive coordinator Matt) Canada kind of challenges them," Roethlisberger said. "I don't know what happens in their O-line room. I’m sure (coach Adrian) Klemm gets on them. I know Coach Canada was very vocal this week. For me, this week was about trying to encourage, talk to each guy and tell them that I believe in them and I know they can do it. I'm not sure what each one responds to, if it's the yelling or the encouragement, but Coach, and then myself, and maybe other guys just trying to encourage and let those guys know that we need them. We’re going to go as they go. So that's kind of how it went."

It was all about power running in this game. And, as Roethlisberger said, they just stuck with it -- something they didn't necessarily do in earlier games. But they could do that because it was working.

"It’s definitely huge when you can come out and get yards on first down and make second and third downs manageable," said guard Trai Turner. "There’s always an emphasis on runs. I love playing with Ben. As much as he loves to throw the ball and I love to watch him sling it, I love to run the ball, too. If we can get that going, I see some good things happening for us."

• Harris was all smiles after this game, as you can imagine. The rookie suffered cramps in his right calf and had to come out in the fourth quarter. But before that, he might have been the game's best player.

"It’s huge. You could see the boost in his morale," Turner said. "You could see the smile. It’s a little bit bigger, a little bit brighter. I’m just happy for him. I was happy for the kid last week when he was finally able to get into the end zone and get his first rushing touchdown. It’s always about watching it and seeing everybody prosper."

It all started with the offensive line, which was driving the Broncos off the line of scrimmage from the start.

"From Week One all the way to now, you can see the improvement on tape," Harris said. "I said a lot that 'the stat sheet doesn’t look like it,' but all of us running backs can tell the difference of how much they’re improving. To come out here and for them to do as well as they did, I feel like this whole press conference should be more just about them other than me because they did an amazing job. And I told them that every time we got on the sideline, even in the game, how well they were doing."

• Credit to Chuks Okorafor.

He stepped back into the lineup this week after sitting out last week against the Packers because of a concussion and pitched a shutout against Von Miller.

Miller, who has 110.5 career sacks, now has no sacks in two games against Okorafor, who also started against him in Denver as a rookie in 2018 in a spot start. Miller's stat line in this game? Two assisted tackles. No sacks. No quarterback hits.

"We still had chips over there. We weren't going to sacrifice our whole offense by putting extra tight ends and extra guys over there," Tomlin said. "We asked Chuks to do a job against one of the best pass rushers in the game and one of the better ones of all time, and I thought he did a great job."

It was not without its hiccups. Okorafor had a pair of false starts, but when you're on an island against a guy such as Miller, that's somewhat expected.

• As mentioned above, the Steelers used a lot of different lineup combinations to supplement things without Sutton.

That included using Spillane at inside linebacker over Bush and Joe Schobert at times in the dime because they value the way he plays in zone coverage while also giving them the ability to stop the run out of those packages.

"We were just spreading Cam Sutton's work around among a group of people as opposed to putting it on one person," Tomlin said. "When you're playing with some guys that are working in expanded roles that still have their special teams’ responsibility, for example, it's good to spread the workload and that's simply what we were doing, leaning on the individual strengths in terms of their style of play but just largely spreading the work around in an effort to minimize the absence of Cam Sutton."

• This win sets the Steelers up well for the next month. This was the first of a stretch in which four of their next five games are at home. And they also have their bye week tucked in there, as well.

But they needed to get a win in this one first before they could think about anything else. And getting the offense untracked was critical.

It doesn't matter who you're playing if you're not playing well.

Sunday, they played well.

• I've been critical of Pressley Harvin thus far this season, but he averaged 59.5 yards on his two -- two! -- punts in this game. The Steelers also netted 46.5 yards on those kicks. That's a winning advantage on special teams.

Benny Snell also deserves a nod of appreciation. He had five carries for 20 yards, helping maneuver the Steelers into field-goal range with Harris on the sideline in the fourth quarter.

He's still not the ideal backup for Harris, but he stepped up in that situation and got positive yards while helping the Steelers milk the clock. The Steelers finished with 147 rushing yards, nearly three times their average coming into this game.

• Roethlisberger's decision to eschew the pass part of the RPO cannot be overlooked. You can bet that younger Ben would have thrown the ball first and asked questions later. He trusted the line to block the runs up. And he trusted Harris to keep getting positive yards.

That will go a long way for what is an extremely young offense.

• I would be remiss if I didn't mention Chase Claypool and Johnson making big plays here.

Johnson, in particular, had a quiet day by his standards, with just two passes thrown his way. But he made them both count, finishing with two catches for 72 yards, including a 22-yard jaunt through the Denver defense with just over five minutes remaining. That catch and run should be on his highlight tape every bit as much as his 50-yard touchdown reception.

Claypool, meanwhile, had a similar such catch, going 59 yards when the Broncos had Miller matched on him in the second quarter -- I thought only the Steelers got linebackers matched on receivers? -- and finishing with five catches for 130 yards and a touchdown.

With James Washington already out, the Steelers were even more thin at wide receiver after JuJu Smith-Schuster left in the second quarter with a shoulder injury.

But with the game on the line, both Claypool and Johnson stepped up. In fact, with the season on the line, the Steelers stepped up.

Nobody summed that up better than Turner.

"We played a great team," Turner said. "They have big backers and they were coming downhill. You just have to meet force with force, fire with fire. It’s iron on iron. Coach Tomlin likes to use that. It can’t be more true than that. Our iron was a little bit hotter."

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