SUBSCRIBE NEWSLETTERS
ADVERTISE| CLASSIFIEDS| JOBS| E-TRIB
HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS NETWORK TRIBLIVE LOCAL
Western Pennsylvania's trusted news source
Feats of Strength: T.J. Watt's huge play, timely touchdowns fuel Steelers upset of Colts | TribLIVE.com
Steelers/NFL

Feats of Strength: T.J. Watt's huge play, timely touchdowns fuel Steelers upset of Colts

Tim Benz
Tim Benz

Sponsored by:

Mike's Beer Bar
9011812_web1_ptr-SteelersColts09-110325
The Steelers’ T.J. Watt takes down Colts running back Jonathan Taylor on Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, at Acrisure Stadium.
9011812_web1_ptr-SteelersColts05-110325
Chaz Palla
Steelers tight end Pat Freiermuth dives into the end zone against the Colts in the second quarter Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025, at Acrisure Stadium.

As Halloween weekend ended, Colts quarterback Daniel Jones turned into a pumpkin.

And the Steelers’ defense took all of his candy.

In a stunning turn of events — based on recent performances — the leaky Steelers defense contained the Colts’ top-ranked offense and sent the team with the best record in football (7-2) back to Indianapolis with a 27-20 loss.

“We lost a couple where we had a legitimate chance to win. But it’s a crazy league,” Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers said. “This was a really important win for us to not lose three in a row, to not go to 1-3 at home. And to not get that big elephant jumping on the back of the defense.”

The win resets everyone’s eye level on the whole season as the Steelers improved to 5-3 and appeared to calm the waters about impending doom for the defense in the second half of the season.

On an afternoon that was expected to contain lots of grievances to air, there was a surprising amount of “Feats of Strength” to honor.

So let’s get to them.

FEATS OF STRENGTH

Got it when they needed it: Nothing was going right for the Steelers early in the second quarter. The Steelers had two three-and-outs. They were trailing 7-0.

The team had also blown an opportunity to score after a muffed punt deep in Indianapolis territory, and the Colts executed a fake punt on the ensuing possession.

Indianapolis advanced the ball all the way to the Steelers’ 38-yard line. That’s when T.J. Watt got involved. He sacked Jones on a first-down pass attempt. Jones fumbled. Watt recovered.

“That was the turning point in the game. For sure,” Rodgers insisted. “That changed the game 100%. From that point on, the pass rush was outstanding. We covered well on the back end.”

That was Watt’s first solo sack since Sept. 28 in Dublin. That was also the last game the Steelers forced a turnover.

Make it count: After doing nothing with Josh Downs’ muffed punt, the Steelers cashed in on that gift from Jones.

Rodgers and the Steelers offense held the ball for the next 12 plays and 5 minutes, 12 seconds. They covered 56 yards in the process, capping the drive with a touchdown run from Jaylen Warren.

On the play, Warren barreled through Nick Cross and an attempted tackle by Kenny Moore II to get into the end zone.

That was Warren’s first rushing TD of the year.

Throughout the game, the Colts kept giving the Steelers turnovers. Aside from the muffed punt, the Steelers did a good job turning most of them into points.

On the second snap after Warren’s touchdown, Payton Wilson intercepted Jones on a short throw.

Pittsburgh took over on the Indy 14-yard line and needed only two plays to score, as Rodgers found Pat Freiermuth.

That was their third TD connection of the year. In all, the Steelers had 24 points off of six turnovers by the Colts.

“It was complementary football. But that’s what happens when you take the ball away from people. It feeds itself,” coach Mike Tomlin said.

Indy had only four giveaways as a team coming into the game.

Taming Taylor: The Steelers did a great job against Colts running back Jonathan Taylor.

Taylor was the NFL’s leading rusher, entering the game with 850 yards. He walked out of Acrisure Stadium with only 45 yards on 14 attempts. None of his runs were longer than 9 yards.

As a team, the Colts ended the day with only 55 yards rushing and a 2.9 yards-per-carry average.

Watching Warren: Taylor wasn’t the only Indianapolis star offensive player who had a quiet day. Tight end Tyler Warren came in with 492 receiving yards, the most among players at the position this year.

But the rookie was limited by the Steelers’ defense. The Penn State product concluded the contest with five receptions for just 26 yards.

“We did a nice job eliminating the intermediate passing game off of play-pass,” Tomlin said. “You don’t get a chance to do that unless you eliminate the run. If they are running the ball successfully on you, the intermediate play pass is what comes next.”

Wide receivers Alec Pierce and Michael Pittman both had 115 receiving yards. A lot of those were empty calories in the fourth quarter, though. Jones’ 6.8 yards per pass attempt and his 63.9 passer rating were season lows.

Hands up: One way the Steelers used to combat the quick passing game of opponents was to get their hands up and bat down short passes from quarterbacks.

They had gotten out of that habit in recent weeks. But the guys along the front seven did that on numerous occasions, including when Wilson tipped a pass that Jack Sawyer intercepted in the third quarter.

The Steelers flipped that turnover into another short touchdown run by Warren.

“We knew that if we stopped the run, in second-and-long they’d try to get on schedule with that rhythm-passing, quick-game,” linebacker Alex Highsmith said. “I thought we did a good job getting our hands up. We did a good job recognizing when they were in those quick-game formations, executing and getting tipped balls.”

Cam Heyward had two deflections at the line as well. The front seven was quite good in general, as Jones was sacked five times and pressured on numerous other occasions. Like Watt, Highsmith also had a strip sack that rookie Derrick Harmon recovered.

Jones ended up being responsible for three interceptions and two lost fumbles.

AIRING OF GRIEVANCES

Slow start: It didn’t feel like the Steelers got much out of the extra hour of sleep after the clocks rolled back. It looked like the Colts’ offense was ready for play from the opening whistle, and the Steelers weren’t.

Jonnu Smith dropped a pass that would’ve gone for a first down on the first snap of the game. Then they completed two passes short of the sticks and had to punt.

The Colts responded by marching 79 yards in 13 plays over 5 minutes, 16 seconds. They converted two fourth downs in the red zone, including a Jones QB sneak to score a touchdown to make it 7-0.

The Steelers went three-and-out on their next possession as well before they recovered a muffed punt in Indianapolis territory.

Hey, speaking of that …

Muffed opportunity: After the Steelers went three-and-out on their second possession, Brandin Echols recovered a muffed punt by Josh Downs at Indianapolis’ 11-yard line.

Echols returned it for a touchdown. But NFL rules state a recovery of a muffed punt can’t be advanced by the punting team.

Unfortunately for the Steelers, they failed to cash in on the break. Rodgers completed a 7-yard pass to Smith. But then Warren was stuffed for no gain. And back-to-back incompletions to Darnell Washington resulted in an empty possession.

The fourth-down pass appeared to catch Washington by surprise, as the throw got to him quickly in the end zone.

Yeah, but …: The Steelers were very good on third downs defensively. They stopped the high-powered Colts’ attack on seven of their first 10 tries.

Unfortunately, Indy was 5 for 5 on fourth downs.

On their own third- and fourth-down tries, the Steelers’ offense ended up being just 5 of 14.

Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via X. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.

Remove the ads from your TribLIVE reading experience but still support the journalists who create the content with TribLIVE Ad-Free.

Get Ad-Free >

Categories: Sports | Steelers/NFL | Breakfast With Benz | Tim Benz Columns | Top Stories
Sports and Partner News