The Pittsburgh Steelers hosted the Jacksonville Jaguars on a rainy Sunday afternoon at Acrisure Stadium. This series has been played close since Jacksonville came into the league back in 1995 and today was no different, even with a 10-point Jaguars victory. Pittsburgh would continue to struggle on offense, deal with key injuries on both sides of the ball, and work thru some questionable calls by the referees in this defeat.
Jacksonville got on the board at the 10:51 mark of the first quarter with a 50-yard field goal from Brandon McManus. Five minutes later he would double that lead with a 51-yard field goal. The Steelers scored their first three points when Chris Boswell hit a 22-yard field goal with four minutes left in the half. McManus connected on a 38-yard field goal to put the road team back on top by six before the half.
The first touchdown of the game came on a 56-yard pass from Trevor Lawrence to Travis Etienne Jr. with five minutes left in the third. With a little under a minute to go in the quarter Mitch Trubisky connected on a 22-yard touchdown pass to George Pickens to cut the deficit to seven. McManus would seal the deal on the game with a 37-yard field goal in the fourth to cap a 20-10 win.
The miserable offense saw Jaylen Warren lead the team with 19 yards on five carries, Diontae Johnson have 85 yards receiving on eight catches, and Trubisky throw for 138 yards on 15-27 passing with two interceptions. Elandon Roberts led the defense with 1.5 sacks, while Damontae Kazee had the lone Pittsburgh interception.
The Steelers got down early and could not get any offense going to close the gap, which has been the story in most of their losses the past two seasons. Aside from the lone Jaguars touchdown, the Pittsburgh defense was good, though not dominant. There were three questionable calls in the first half by the refs that did not do Pittsburgh any favors.
The first was when they got called for a roughing the passer call that did not seem that violent, a no call on a play that resulted in Kenny Pickett getting injured, and an offsides call on a field goal that took three points off the board. With a short week coming up, the injuries to Pickett and Minkah Fitzpatrick may have that much more of an impact. The Steelers will welcome a Tennessee Titans fresh off a win over the Atlanta Falcons to town on Thursday night.
Overall Record 4-3
