The Pittsburgh Steelers have lost their third game in four weeks with a 25-10 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, sending them to 5-4 on the season. The offense had by far its worst performance of the season,
while the defense did all it could to limit the Chargers. Here is this week’s Varsity and JV performers.
Varsity
EDGE Nick Herbig
Herbig is currently the Steelers’ best edge rusher. He had a sack and two tackles for loss, which brings his season total to 5.5 sacks and eight TFLs. For comparison, he had 5.5 sacks all of last season and five TFLs, as well. He has taken such a big leap forward and continues to be one of the brightest stars on Pittsburgh’s defense.
DT Keeanu Benton
Benton continues to get better. He had a sack and two tackles for loss and totaled seven tackles on the night, consistently disrupting plays from the interior.
EDGE T.J. Watt
Watt added a sack to his season total, which gives him six on the season. He also had a batted pass at the line of scrimmage and three hits on Justin Herbert.
EDGE Alex Highsmith
Highsmith has stacked two great performances, as he now has consecutive games with two sacks. He also had two tackles for loss and three hits on Justin Herbert.
K Chris Boswell
Despite the rare miss, Boswell hit a 59-yard field goal, which was the Steelers’ only real points of the game before Roman Wilson scored in garbage time.
RB Jaylen Warren
Warren averaged five yards per carry and was consistently explosive with the ball in his hands. He leaped over a defender for the offensive highlight of the night, and it was frustrating to see the Steelers not lean into the run game when it was working all night.
CB James Pierre
Pierre came in after Darius Slay left the game due to a head injury, and he played well, holding his own with strong coverage and notching two passes defended to prevent completions.
Junior-Varsity
QB Aaron Rodgers
Not only was this Aaron Rodgers’ worst game as a Steeler, but you could make the case that it was the worst game of his career. He airmailed multiple passes, most notably a touchdown that was overthrown to DK Metcalf and a big gain inside the red zone that was too tall for Jonnu Smith to bring in. He also threw two interceptions (one of which did hit Calvin Austin directly in the hands). In totality, Rodgers was 16-of-31 for 161 yards with a QBR of 4.6.
Pass Protection
Rodgers was pressured eight times and on just over 23 percent of dropbacks, per Next Gen Stats. While he was bad, so, too, was his protection.
Passing Game
Just everything with the passing game was brutal. Rodgers was hesitant to pull the trigger in some instances. Calvin Austin had a ball hit him directly in the hands, which he dropped, and was picked off. The Steelers had an EPA per pass of -0.50 and an EPA per play of -0.37, per RBSDM stats. It was by far their worst offensive showing of the season.
PR Ke’Shawn Williams
Williams muffed a punt that was recovered by the Chargers and led to a field goal. The game was practically over by this time, but still not great to see.
Division Title Hopes
The Steelers held a three-game lead over the Baltimore Ravens a month ago. Now, they are 5-4 with the Ravens having won their last three games to get to 4-5. With Baltimore getting healthy and hot at the right time, it certainly looks like they will come all the way back from a 1-5 start to win the division, which is a massive mole on Mike Tomlin.
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