Defense, Justin Fields shine as Steelers charge past L.A., improve to 3-0 on season

Challenge accepted by the Pittsburgh Steelers defense.

Coach Mike Tomlin reminded his players that the Los Angeles Chargers were entering Acrisure Stadium on Sunday with the NFL’s stingiest defense. The Steelers, also unbeaten after two weeks, were merely second best among the 32 teams in fewest points allowed.

“They respond to those things and take those challenges very personally,” Tomlin said. “They played like it.”

Riding a group that has yet to allow a second-half touchdown this season, the Steelers bounced back from a three-point halftime deficit by shutting out the Chargers after intermission to complete a 20-10 victory. As a result, the Steelers are 3-0 for the first time since 2020.

The Chargers totaled just 168 yards, the fewest allowed by the Steelers since 2011 against Seattle. In the second half, the Chargers had minus-5 yards and one first down.

The Steelers have yielded just six points in the second half this season — two field goals — and 26 overall, giving them their best start defensively since 2007. Only three other Steelers defenses since the 1970 merger have allowed fewer points through three weeks.

Coming in, though, it was the Chargers who held the bragging rights, having permitted 13 points in a 2-0 start.

“We’re going to see,” Tomlin told his defense, according to inside linebacker Elandon Roberts. “We were all talking back to Mike T like, ‘We are going to see.’ He did a great job of letting us know. They walk in here as the No. 1 defense. What are you going to do?”

The defense’s performance Sunday, particularly in the final 30 minutes, provided enough time for the offense to get untracked in the fourth quarter. That’s when Justin Fields threw a 55-yard touchdown pass to Calvin Austin III, and the Steelers gained 80 of their 114 yards rushing to keep the Chargers offense off the field.

The Chargers possessed the ball for fewer than 10 minutes in the second half, and they could only watch helplessly as the Steelers exhausted the final 4 minutes, 59 seconds with Fields kneeling twice to end the game after the offense had reached the 1.

“We knew what we were up against,” Fields said. “We knew we had a big test in front of us, but we have a pretty good defense that we go up against as well.”

Fields accounted for both Steelers touchdowns. He scored on a 5-yard keeper in the first half and then provided the Steelers with a 10-point cushion with 7:02 left when he hooked up with Austin on a 55-yard catch-and-run. Chris Boswell added two field goals.

“We have a confident group,” said outside linebacker T.J. Watt, who had one of the Steelers’ five second-half sacks. “We knew they were a top defense. We don’t do a lot of talking. We like to go out on the field and play and have fun. I feel like we did that today.”

The Chargers entered with the NFL’s rushing leader in J.K. Dobbins but also with starting quarterback Justin Herbert hampered by a high ankle sprain. Herbert threw a 27-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter that staked the Chargers to a 7-0 lead, but he left late in the third when he aggravated his injury.

Backup Taylor Heinecke was sacked three times in the fourth. Nick Herbig, replacing an injured Alex Highsmith after halftime, had two sacks. Watt, Roberts and Cameron Heyward had the others.

Dobbins, meantime, had 39 yards rushing in the first half and finished with 44 of the Chargers’ 61. The Steelers totaled 34 yards on 19 carries through three quarters before the running game found its footing.

“It didn’t happen instantly,” Tomlin said. “We had to stay in it. That’s life in the NFL. I just liked our general demeanor throughout. It wasn’t fluid the whole way, but I didn’t feel any blink or anyone running away from the challenge.”

Neither team got a first down until their third possession. Each responded with a touchdown drive.

The Chargers struck first on Herbert’s 27-yard touchdown pass to Quentin Johnston. The Steelers countered by driving 70 yards in 13 plays. Fields capped it when he kept the ball on a third-and-3 run/pass option and scored on a 5-yard run.

Cameron Dicker’s 28-yard field goal with 3:13 left in the half put the Chargers back on top.

Boswell, who missed a 62-yard attempt late in the first half, connected from 38 yards on the first drive of the second half to tie the score. Fields threw his first interception of the season on the next possession, but the defense forced a three-and-out.

Boswell’s 30-yard field goal with 14:14 left gave the Steelers their first lead. It came on a drive in which the Steelers benefited from two personal fouls against the Chargers and a holding call that wiped out a third-down sack of Fields.

Heinecke’s first full series in place of Herbert ended when he was sacked for an 8-yard loss by Watt, forcing another punt. Fields then applied the dagger with his 55-yard strike to Austin.

Herbig and Heyward sacked Heinecke twice in a three-play span, and the Chargers offense never touched the ball again.

“We adjust well,” Heyward said. “We understand what our mistakes are, and we try not to repeat them. We’re very keen on if we have a problem, we make it go away pretty fast.”