Coming off a big win Sunday night on the road against the Carolina Panthers, many thought the Pittsburgh Steelers had momentum on their side as the winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers paid a visit to Heinz Field Sunday afternoon.
Instead of feasting on the winless Bucs, the Steelers showed why they have been a .500 team in back-to-back seasons, turning in an inconsistent performance on both sides of the ball in a 27-24 loss that dropped the black-and-gold to 2-2 on the season.
Tampa backup quarterback Mike Glennon hit a diving Vincent Jackson for a 5-yard touchdown with seven seconds remaining to give the Bucs the lead. Glennon threw for 302 yards in his first start of the season, including a 41-yard catch-and-run by Louis Murphy that set up Jackson’s score.
“After a performance like that I think it is important that we look within and look at what it is that we are doing,” said Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. “The bottom line is that we are an undisciplined group. We are too highly penalized. Obviously we are not coaching it. We are allowing it to happen. So I take responsibility for that.”
The penalties that Tomlin was referring to haunted the Steelers all afternoon long as they were flagged a whopping 13 times for 125 yards.
“Penalties killed us,” said linebacker Lawrence Timmons. “If we clean that up we win the game. It’s just the penalties. It’s frustrating.”
Ben Roethlisberger threw for 314 yards and three touchdowns but the Steelers couldn’t protect a seven-point lead in the fourth quarter.
Antonio Brown caught seven passes for 131 yards and two scores, and Heath Miller added a career-high nine grabs with a touchdown. But it wasn’t enough as Pittsburgh allowed Tampa Bay to hang around long enough to pull off the upset.
A big point in the game came when the Steelers got the ball back with 1:44 remaining, needing a first down to put the game away. However the Steelers went three-and-out giving Tampa some life.
“If we don’t get another five-yard penalty there, we likely do get a first down and put the game away,” added Tomlin. “It’s just that simple. We kicked our own butt today with penalties.”
The Steelers started very slowly, allowing back-to-back sacks from Tampa’s Gerald McCoy and Michael Johnson, as the second of which caused a Roethlisberger fumble that the Bucs recovered inside the Steelers’ 10-yard line.
Tampa quickly turned the turnover into points two plays later when Glennon hit rookie Mike Evans with a seven-yard touchdown pass. The Bucs then forced a quick Steelers punt and turned that into a 50-yard field goal from Patrick Murray.
That seemed enough to wake the Steelers offense up though as Roethlisberger started to look downfield. Miller dropped a pass on what would have been a big play, but Markus Wheaton and Brown had big catches, setting the Steelers up for a 25-yard Shaun Suisham field goal.
After forcing a Tampa three-and-out, the Steelers started stretching the field once again, and this time they punched it in with an 11-yard scoring pass from Roethlisberger to Brown to knot the game up at 10.
The Steelers struck again and it was the same combination as Brown made a spectacular 27-yard touchdown catch in which he was falling over a Tampa Bay defender, to make it a 17-10 game.
But the Bucs wouldn’t go away and tied the game up on their opening drive of the second half when they traveled 80 yards on eight plays, finishing with a Doug Martin three-yard touchdown run.
Roethlisberger led the Steelers back down the field and regained the lead when he hit Miller with a five-yard scoring strike to make it 24-17.
Tampa had an opportunity to tie the game early in the fourth quarter when they had a first-and-goal situation from the eight and had to settle for a field goal, but they had success driving the ball right at the Steelers defense when it mattered the most.
“Give Tampa credit,” said safety Mike Mitchell. “The game is on the line and we have to get a stop to win the game. They made plays at the end to win and we didn’t make enough plays. As a defense we have to rise up. As long as there is time on the clock and grass to defend then we have to defend it. We didn’t do that today.”
At the end of the day though, Glennon was able to make plays when he had to and the Steelers were not.
“We were really moving the ball on them,” said Glennon. “We had one drive where we went like 90 yards and weren’t able to score. Luckily our defense got the ball back for us there at the end and we were able to get a touchdown out of it. It was a great win.”
The Steelers will be back in action next Sunday when they travel to Jacksonville.
Notes: Brown became the first player in NFL history to post 20 consecutive games of at least five receptions and 50 yards… Miller passed Lynn Swann to move into fourth place on the Steelers all-time receiving list…Roethlisberger became just the 12th quarterback in NFL history to amass 35,000 yards passing with one team, and the fifth active quarterback to do so…The Steelers rushing attack, which was among the NFL’s best coming into the game, rushed for only 85 yards on 27 carries (3.1 avg)…Roethlisberger was sacked five times, Glennon was only sacked once.
Photo Credit: Pittsburgh Steelers
