In a final score not many saw coming, Pittsburgh defeated the current AFC top seed Indianapolis Colts at Acrisure Stadium on Sunday, 27-20. As always, there are plenty of takeaways to be had.
1. “Just when I thought I was out…”
The Steelers’ win over the Colts (which wasn’t as close as the final score seems to indicate) was the exact reason why you still have to tune into the NFL each week — even when every piece of evidence indicates the game will go one way.
Pittsburgh, after a disastrous Weeks 7-8 on defense, largely dominated the
top offense in the league in a quality home win over a team that had the best record in the entire NFL.
MVP candidate Jonathan Taylor was held to a pedestrian 14 carries for 45 yards. The resurgent Daniel Jones lost two fumbles and tossed three interceptions. Indianapolis’ highly-regarded offensive line gave up five sacks.
Who could’ve seen it coming? Some brave souls picked the Steelers to win the game, but no one predicted the dominant fashion by which it would happen.
After weeks of doom and gloom in Pittsburgh, the good vibes are suddenly back. The Steelers beat a legitimate playoff team. The offense was competent. The defense was largely stellar.
Of course, this doesn’t change much regarding the 2025 Steelers if you managed to keep a level head through the team’s most recent losing streak. Every year there are stunning wins like Sunday’s and a handful of maddening losses like the last two weeks.
To return to an Aaron Rodgers quote I liked following the team’s Week 7 Thursday night loss to Cincinnati, “I’m not going to ride the rollercoaster” — up or down.
Plus, as the last few weeks have proven, turnovers are not a sustainable winning strategy. The Steelers needed most of the Colts’ six giveaways to win on Sunday, and I wouldn’t count on that repeating against the Chargers in Week 10.
There’s a temptation to turn this column into a version of the “it’s so over/we’re so back” meme each week. Still, you have to admire the grit of Pittsburgh to respond the way they did against an opponent like the Colts despite the recent trajectory of the season. After deflating late in games against the Packers and Bengals, the Steelers showed there’s still some fight left.
Despite recent worries about the way the Steelers have looked — and the inevitable low points yet to come this season — there’s little doubt this team is eventually headed to the playoffs. But hopes shouldn’t be rising much higher than that.
2. The Steelers defense made some changes — will they stick?
Pittsburgh’s defensive renaissance against the Colts wasn’t as simple as the players just performing better. There were some significant schematic changes that took place as well.
One was confirmed before the game: Jalen Ramsey spent the majority of his defensive snaps at safety against the Colts. While safety play is hard to judge from the broadcast view, and the Steelers defense still had some Swiss cheese moments near the beginning and end of the game, it was clear that the coverage was greatly improved from recent weeks.
There were less immediate, wide-open reads in the secondary. The middle of the field — and tight end Tyler Warren — wasn’t an easy button for the opposing offense. There weren’t any long touchdowns, repeated missed tackles, or noticeable communication issues.
I’ve largely been an advocate of keeping Ramsey at cornerback while he’s still physically capable. It’s just a more impactful position than safety, and the Darius Slay signing hasn’t panned out the way the Pittsburgh front office hoped it would. But Ramsey’s performance Sunday seemed to indicate that the Steelers’ best starting 11 on defense is when No. 5 is manning the middle of the field.
Another big change came in the Steelers’ general coverage tendencies, which even from the broadcast angle were clearly more cover-2 heavy than normal. Next Gen Stats backed it up.
While the Steelers struggled with defending hole shots to start the game, they eventually settled in and saw success defending what’s been killing them on defense recently: the quick game. By getting Daniel Jones off of his first read, the team’s vaunted pass rush was able to take over and the defense started to look as-advertised.
The final major change I noticed was Pittsburgh switching to a more 4-3 look on the front seven, playing three inside linebackers instead of the usual two. Patrick Queen, Payton Wilson, and Malik Harrison all saw significant snaps. It was a clear success, with Jonathan Taylor being limited to just 3.2 yards per carry and no scores.
Especially with a run-stuffing talent like Harrison back from injured reserve, the Steelers were able to use their two-defensive lineman looks and remain stout up front. And — while these takes are all pending all-22 — it allowed Payton Wilson to have a second fantastic game in a row; he finished Sunday with a whopping 14 tackles, one interception, and a turnover-causing pass deflection. The NFL noticed too, apparently.
The 4-3 look will likely be a matchup-dependent wrinkle to the defense. But the increase in Ramsey’s safety snaps and split-safety coverages? Those masked several of the issues that have plagued the Pittsburgh defense this season, and should probably stick around.
And while it’s fair to say that the Daniel Jones-led Colts — even with their historic numbers entering Week 9 — are not as intimidating as an offense with Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen, the Steelers’ new-look defense still held up against a very good opponent.
Most of Mike Tomlin’s comments after the game regarding the defensive changes pointed back to personnel deficiencies due to injuries. As a result, it’s difficult to know if these adjustments will be permanent or just a temporary fix while the Steelers regain health and familiarity with their defensive roster. I still remember Pittsburgh figuring out the optimal rotation for the team’s top three edge rushers against the Browns and then promptly ignoring it the next two weeks.
Hopefully, that’s not the case this time around. Some of the changes the Steelers introduced versus the Colts could actually provide a boon for a defense that has largely struggled in recent memory.
3. The Steelers offense has a verticality problem
You can probably envision it in your mind, but if not, here’s Aaron Rodgers’ passing chart against the Colts:
Yup, that’s nine of his 25 completions at or near the line of scrimmage. And here’s a more concerning statistic from Next Gen Stats: “Rodgers averaged just 2.7 air yards per attempt, the 3rd-fewest by a QB this season, and threw only three passes over 10 air yards (1 of 3).”
Sure, the Steelers did score 27 points and win on Sunday, but that success was heavily dependent on the defense’s aforementioned six turnovers. Even Aaron Rodgers acknowledged there’s plenty of work to do on his side of the ball in his postgame press conference.
The Steelers quick game, of course, isn’t all bad and has definitely led to success this season. It’s helped out a developing offensive line and has been a major factor in Pittsburgh’s best season on offense in recent years.
But in multiple moments against the Colts, the Steelers either passed the ball well short of the sticks on a must-have down, or seemed to wilt the moment the initial quick game read was covered.
Much of it is on Rodgers. Far be it from me to tell a quarterback with his experience and success to just stay in the pocket and take hits, but Rodgers is still noticeably uncomfortable behind his O-line at times when plays go long, bailing on solid protection and missing reads that break open just a tick late. And a lot of the time, the dump-off seems like the first read rather than a safety blanket if the downfield routes don’t come open.
Some of that has to fall on Arthur Smith’s play calling as well, even if he’s largely done a good job this season. And Rodgers’ pass catchers haven’t always helped him much, either. The Steelers opened up their first offensive drive of the game with an intermediate play-action shot to Jonnu Smith that bounced off the tight end’s fingertips in the first of several ugly drops on the afternoon.
With that performance (and especially after winning against the Colts) the odds of Pittsburgh trading for a wide receiver ahead of the trade deadline has skyrocketed. And while I’ll maintain that the Steelers should not go any more “all in” on this season than they already have, there are some potentially affordable options that could help in both the short and long term. (And the Roman Wilson unnecessary-hurdle-turned-fumble definitely didn’t help the team’s confidence in the former third-rounder gaining a bigger role on offense).
4. Kyle Dugger is the not-so-unsung hero of the win
New Steelers safety Kyle Dugger recorded four tackles in the Steelers’ win on Sunday, but for the most part he wasn’t all that noticeable on the field despite playing the vast majority of Pittsburgh’s defense snaps.
That sure was a nice change from the Steelers’ last outing, where safeties Chuck Clark and Juan Thornhill were very noticeable in a bad way all game against the Packers.
As I mentioned before, it’s impossible to give a strong take on safety play from just watching the broadcast angle, but all signs pointed to a good performance from Dugger, who joined the Steelers midweek and was a key cog in one of the defense’s best performances of the year.
Mike Tomlin often talks about new additions to the team having the jump on a moving train, something he praised Dugger for doing successfully after the game.
I’m not sure how unsung of a hero Dugger can be after earning a game ball and even a Minkah Fitzpatrick comparison from Tomlin postgame, but the safety’s contributions shouldn’t go unnoticed. The Steelers talked about simplifying their scheme to play faster against the Colts, but Dugger’s ability to start and play the number of snaps he did on less than a week of preparation is nothing short of impressive.
5. Odds and ends
- An underrated storyline of the Steelers’ 2025 season is the development of Joey Porter Jr. The Steelers brought in two veterans in Jalen Ramsey and Darius Slay this year, not just to boost the corner room, but also to mentor him. Porter goes through phases where he looks like the stickiest corner on the roster — he finished Sunday’s game with four passes defensed, an interception, and even a sack — but penalties remain a major issue in his game. There’s still certainly potential to develop into a CB1, but Porter doesn’t have much time left to develop. He needs to become a consistent star in the secondary soon.
- Kaleb Johnson gained 13 yards on two touches — nothing major, but it’s nice to see the rookie runner back on the field. He was a good player in college and given his third-round draft status, you’d hope he starts becoming a bigger feature on the offense as the season drags on.
- There’s a group of us in the Steelers media who didn’t love the Jack Sawyer draft pick, especially given that Tory Horton was available at the same time. Truthfully, I’m still not sold on Pittsburgh’s choice there. But just like in college, it seems Sawyer’s ability to make big plays has carried onto the pros. His interception on Sunday was a welcome surprise.
- Payton Wilson seems to be going for a punch-out on every tackle he makes. He’ll get one eventually.
- Darnell Washington still has some issues, but it’s been a treat to watch him develop as a receiver this season. The fourth-quarter play where he was lined up as an X receiver and won on a slant route was a treat to watch. He was always a high-upside player, but he’s starting to reach heights I didn’t expect him to hit in the NFL. Just a ridiculously fun player.
- The Steelers’ six-turnover performance on defense was definitionally fluky, but to their credit, Pittsburgh forced the Colts into a whopping 14 third downs and five fourth downs on Sunday — the Colts just converted six of the former and all five of the latter. The Steelers were a handful of yards away from an even better defensive performance on Sunday.
- Nick Herbig played a respectable 37 defensive snaps to Alex Highsmith’s 45 and T.J. Watt’s 56 on Sunday, per PFF. I liked the wrinkle of the team using three-outside linebacker packages with interior pressures on passing downs.
- Alex Highsmith played a phenomenal game with two sacks, a forced fumble, and some run stuffs. But most impressive was his pass breakup — not at the line, but in space. Highsmith’s coverage ability as a high-end pass rusher remains such an underrated part of his game.
- Since I’ve already mentioned Sawyer, Herbig, and Highsmith, I’ll give T.J. Watt a shoutout as well. Watt delivered a vintage moment with a second-quarter strip sack and fumble recovery that kickstarted the Steelers’ first points of the game. I think it’s fair to say that Watt’s effectiveness against double teams and chips isn’t quite what it used to be, but it’s still absolutely a mistake to leave him one on one on the outside.
- The inverse of my “the Steelers should push the ball downfield more” take applies to Calvin Austin III. I liked seeing the team get him involved in more than just field-stretching routes against Indianapolis. I’ve thought since the team signed Rodgers that Austin could be a weapon in the underneath game, and that was the case on Sunday. The receiver finished with five catches on six targets for 56 yards and two first downs.
- I liked seeing offensive coordinator Arthur Smith use some more power concepts in the run game against Indianapolis. Troy Fautanu is a great athlete, and using his pulling ability from time to time has been a nice change of pace. Smith should get Mason McCormick involved, too.
- Isaac Seumalo deserves some credit for toughing it out as long as he did with his pectoral injury before finally being ruled out late in the game. Here’s hoping it isn’t serious.
- After a rough start to the season, Kenneth Gainwell has turned into not just a solid secondary option at running back, but a productive contributor in the passing game. Just go forward when you’re that close to a first down in the fourth quarter next time, please.
- D.K. Metcalf provoking a Colts penalty was a nice plot twist from his antics drawing a flag last week against Green Bay.
- Metcalf also caught game-sealing onside kick in the most D.K. Metcalf way possible.
- Steelers special teams coordinator Danny Smith should really be getting more credit for his thousand-IQ call to have Chris Boswell kick the ball out of bounds intentionally on a kickoff, finding a loophole in the NFL rules thanks to the short field and giving the Colts the ball at their own 25.
- I’m continuing to inch closer to becoming a full-time member of the James Pierre fan club. He just always delivers when he’s getting reps on defense. I legitimately wouldn’t mind giving him more snaps there as the season goes on.
- One thing I wrote several times before the season started was that at the very least, this Pittsburgh team should be more entertaining than we’ve seen in the past. So far, I’d say that’s been largely true. As I wrote in my first point in this article, even during rough patches of the season, there’s still always a reason to tune in on Sundays.
The Steelers draw another tough matchup in Week 10, taking on the Los Angeles Chargers on the road on Sunday Night Football Nov. 9.
What are your takeaways from Steelers vs. Colts? Agree/disagree with the ones above? Join the Behind the Steel Curtain community and let us know in the comments!
