In a battle of the last two unbeaten teams in the AFC, the Pittsburgh Steelers built a big lead in the first half, and held off a Tennessee Titans’ comeback to secure a 27-24 victory.
The Steelers improved to 6-0 on the season and stay atop the AFC North ahead of the Baltimore Ravens. With the loss, the Titans fell to 5-1 on the year.
Pittsburgh dominated in all three phases during the first half. Ben Roethlisberger threw two touchdowns passes to Diontae Johnson in the first half, while Benny Snell ran for a touchdown. The Steelers out-gained the Titans 161-1 during the first 18 minutes of the game, and they held a 24-7 lead at the half.
After the Steelers added a field goal to begin the second half, Ryan Tannehill finally got things going for Tennessee. He hit A.J. Brown for a 73 yard touchdown pass to cut the lead to 27-14. After Roethlisberger was intercepted by Jayon Brown, a field goal by Stephen Gostkowski cut the lead to 27-17. Later, the Titans moved down the field and cut the lead to just three points with a Derrick Henry touchdown run.
The Steelers put together a long 16 play drive that put them into the Titans’ red zone. But Ben was intercepted in the end zone with just 2:40 remaining in the game. Tannehill moved the Titans down the field and into field goal range, but Gostkowski missed a yard field goal and the Steelers held on for the win.
At halftime, this looked like it would be an easy victory, but the Steelers let their foot off the gas and allowed the Titans to get back into the game. While they hold a 6-0 record and are atop the conference, they have yet to put together a complete game. They’ll need to play their best game of the season next week when the face off against the Ravens.
