Tim Benz: Feats of Strength, Airing of Grievances as Steelers cling to victory in Tennessee

For the first 30 minutes of Sunday’s 27-24 Pittsburgh Steelers victory over the Tennessee Titans, I thought this was going to be a much shorter post than normal.

I didn’t have any grievances to air! And the “Feats of Strength” were coming in droves. I thought I’d only be doing one half of the entry.

The good half.

Unfortunately, that’s when the second half of the game started. And the Steelers’ 24-7 lead started to slip away.

The Titans ended up throwing the ball into the end zone with a chance to win the game in the final seconds. So, yes, I found a few grievances to throw into the atmosphere.

Mike Tomlin’s team held on to win, however. It improved to 6-0 by outlasting a previously unbeaten opponent in its building. Quite a victory for the Steelers as they prepare to visit the hated Baltimore Ravens (5-1) with AFC supremacy on the line next Sunday.

Let’s see what got them there — and what got your heart rates up to a point that your cardiologist is probably best off not knowing.

Feats of strength

Gentlemen, start your engines: You had to love the start for the Steelers. On both sides of the ball.

The Steelers finally got that pesky first-drive touchdown they have been hunting. The offense scored on the opening drive for the first time since Week 15 of 2018. It was a drought of 23 games.

In fact, it scored twice. James Conner caught a touchdown pass. Then it was taken off the board because of a penalty. But quarterback Ben Roethlisberger squeezed a ball to Diontae Johnson for a touchdown on third-and-goal.

Good to have @Juiceup__3 back out there‼️

CBS https://t.co/tI5aUTu7te pic.twitter.com/guKYuL3q5d

— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) October 25, 2020

Meanwhile, the Titans were held to a three-and-out by the defense on their first possession.

In the first quarter, the Steelers had eight first downs, over 13 minutes of possession time and converted all six of their third-down chances.

Hold that thought: Let’s look a little deeper at those two categories.

The Steelers dominated time of possession. They wound up holding onto the ball for 36:37. The Steelers offense was on the field for 16:23 of the first 17:44 of the game.

The Steelers converted their first seven third-down conversions and 13 of 18 overall. Meanwhile, Tennessee was only 5 of 13 in that category.

The Steelers’ first two possessions were touchdown drives of 16 and 13 plays. They also had a 16-play drive in the fourth quarter that ended with an interception by Roethlisberger in the Tennessee end zone.

Here when you need us: When the Titans did have the ball, especially in the first half, the Steelers helped those numbers by getting off the field quickly. Coordinator Keith Butler’s unit contained Titans star running back Derrick Henry for most of the game.

The NFL’s leading rusher walked away with 75 yards. That’s more than what the Steelers allow on average — 66.6 yards per game coming into the contest. But it’s also 42 yards under Henry’s average.

They plugged escape lanes and owned the offensive front of the Titans in the same way they dictated terms to the New York Giants with Saquon Barkley in Week 1.

Outside linebackers T.J. Watt and Bud Dupree stood out in that regard, crashing in from the edges. Watt had three tackles for loss in the game. They kept him penned in the box. And players such as Vince Williams (10 tackles) along with the entire defensive line gummed up the middle.

“We played the defenses we normally play,” Tomlin said. “We had to defeat blocks, make tackles and prevent him from falling forward. A tall task for a guy like him.”

Henry averaged 3.8 yards per carry. And his longest run was 17 yards.

Big when it counts: The play of the game was turned in by inside linebacker Robert Spillane. He hammered Henry in at the goal line during the fourth quarter.

“There is no going slow into the hole,” Spillane said. “It took all my force going with me. T.J. was with me. And we were able to bring him down.”

Spillane hurt his shoulder on the play. He came back to finish the game, though. And Tennessee scored anyway after a fourth-down penalty.

But after a week’s worth of conversation about Spillane returning to his former stadium to play against his old team and how Henry may run all over him in his first start replacing Devin Bush, it was quite a thunderous win for the young Steelers defender.

Another big play late was Joe Haden running stride for stride with Corey Davis on a third down throw into the end zone by Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill. It wasn’t a great second half for the Steelers secondary. But that play in coverage by Haden forced Stephen Gostkowski’s missed field-goal attempt on the next snap.

And that iced the game for the Steelers.

All three phases: The Steelers were also better on special teams.

Chris Boswell was perfect on all five place kicks (extra points and field goals). Ray-Ray McCloud had a punt return of 57 yards.

The Steelers, with punting issues all year long, employed the best strategy possible to aid their own punting situation.

Never punt.

After cutting punter Dustin Colquitt, the franchise re-signed Jordan Berry. But he didn’t attempt a punt until 8:02 remained in the third quarter.

The Titans’ Brett Kern’s first three punts traveled an average of 61 yards. But he muffed one on a low snap. That resulted in a comical attempt at a pass from the punter. But the Steelers couldn’t turn that into points with 21 seconds left before halftime.

And the Titans ended the game with another kicking misstep: the missed tying field goal from Stephen Gostkowski.

By the way, were the Steelers offsides on that play? Maybe. I hope so. That’d make it all the more fitting. Consider it karma for Joe Nedney in the 2002 playoffs, right?

Airing of grievances

Fast and loose: For as good as Roethlisberger was, he flirted with disaster on a few occasions.

The late-fourth-quarter interception in the end zone was an unnecessary gamble. JuJu Smith-Schuster was covered by three people.

We've got a chance! @amanihooker37

: Watch #PITvsTEN on CBS pic.twitter.com/PsS107BFVB

— Tennessee Titans (@Titans) October 25, 2020

Roethlisberger had two options open underneath. Likely, neither receiver would have gotten the first down. But it would’ve set up Boswell for an easy field goal to make the score 30-24 with barely over two minutes remaining.

He threw the ball backwards to an unsuspecting Conner once. He flipped a ball erratically to Eric Ebron in the first quarter to keep the first drive alive. And a few batted balls hung dangerously in the air as Roethlisberger attempted to squeeze some passes into tight coverage.

And that bomb into the end zone at the end of the first half was a little too “all or nothing” for my taste with 11 seconds remaining.

Dropsies: Roethlisberger threw a beautiful pass to Johnson down the right sideline in the second quarter.

The drive resulted in a Boswell field goal, but a touchdown there makes the game less tense at the end.

Aside from that, Johnson had nine catches for 80 yards and two touchdowns.

Painful penalties: The Steelers were penalized eight times. And a few of them were costly.

Minkah Fitzpatrick’s fourth-down holding penalty at the goal line reset a first-and-goal situation in the fourth quarter that led to a Henry touchdown.

Chuks Okorafor took that Conner touchdown off the board. But Johnson scored a few plays later to make the score 7-0. Henry Mondeaux jumped into the neutral zone on a third-and-1. That gave the Titans a first down. It led to their only touchdown of the first half.

And Ebron had a false start that pushed the Steelers back 5 yards when they were already looking at a 50-yard field goal attempt on the first snap after Kern’s botched punt. So Roethlisberger just heaved that pass into the end zone for an interception at the end of the half.

That didn’t seem like a big deal at the time. But….

The broadcast feed: For many viewers, the CBS feed cut out for a short time in the fourth quarter.

But it felt like an eternity.

I know watching that fourth quarter was painful, and you wanted to turn it off. But once you lost the game, admit it, not knowing was even worse, right?

It was for me.