With 42 seconds left in the game, the Pittsburgh Steelers led the Dallas Cowboys 30-29.
But then Ezekiel Elliott happened, and Steelers fans got to see just why the buzz surrounding him is so justified.
With nine seconds left, Elliott rushed up the middle 32 yards for a touchdown, giving Dallas the 35-30 win at Heinz Field in what was undoubtedly one of the best NFL games this season. The win was the seventh straight for the Cowboys (8-1).
A week after a rough outing versus the Baltimore Ravens, the Steelers’ offense was firing on all cylinders. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger didn’t look a guy who had knee surgery just a few weeks ago, finishing with 408 yards, an 80.4 completion percentage, three touchdowns and no interceptions. Unlike last week, he was on the same page as his wideouts, who gave the Cowboys’ defense major headaches.
Roethlisberger did a great job of distributing the football, finding eight different targets. Antonio Brown finally looked like himself again, with 154 yards on 14 receptions and one touchdown. He had seven catches in the first half alone, which was more catches than he had in all but three other games this season.
Running back Le’Veon Bell was actually the team’s second-leading receiver with his 77 yards on nine receptions. And Sunday’s game saw the much-anticipated debut of tight end Ladarius Green — he’d been on the physically unable to play (PUP) list all season with an ankle/head issue. Green finished with 30 yards on three receptions.
But the real story for the Steelers was the emergence of Eli Rogers as a legit No. 2 receiver. After the loss to Baltimore, Brown called out his fellow receivers, saying there was only so much he could do when faced with double — and sometimes triple — coverage. Against Dallas, Roethlisberger found Rogers four times for 42 yards and a touchdown. Cobi Hamilton also made an impression. While Roethlisberger found Hamilton just once, it was an important 39-yard pass.
In the running game, Bell finished with just 57 yards, most of which came in the first half. He was the key to Pittsburgh’s first drive — which ended in a touchdown. On that drive, he ran the ball twice and caught the ball another two times before coming down with it in the endzone. While it certainly wasn’t his best day — largely thanks to some rather questionable playcalling from offensive coordinator Todd Haley, who seemed to forget he had one of the league’s premier backs at his disposal — Bell is still invaluable to the team.
All in all, though, Sunday’s offense was the one Steelers fans are used to seeing on the field.
The only offensive weapon missing was rookie Sammie Coates, who has shown he has the speed to be dangerous but isn’t a reliable pass-catching option yet (especially with the number of drops he’s had).
Pittsburgh’s offense got some major help from a mostly strong defensive performance. Dallas has found quite a bit of success running up the possession clock, leading the league in that stat, but the Steelers’ defense did a good job of getting off the field and giving its offense back the ball. (The Cowboys finished with 30:24 minutes of possession, compared with the Steelers’ 29:36 minutes.)
The strong defensive tone was set early when linebacker Anthony Chickillo forced a fumble on Dallas’ first drive, which was recovered by fellow linebacker Ryan Shazier.
But as well as the defense played generally, it continues to get gashed on big plays — like a 50-yard touchdown pass from rookie quarterback Dak Prescott to wide receiver Dez Bryant for a touchdown or a short pass to Elliott that turned into an 83-yard touchdown. All in all, Pittsburgh’s defense allowed 319 passing yards to Prescott, 114 rushing yards to Elliott and 116 receiving yards to Bryant.
Elliott, in particular, proved to be a problem. Consistently, it looked like Pittsburgh had stopped him at the line, only for him to register a six- or seven-yard gain. He does have the advantage of playing behind one of the best offensive lines in the NFL.
In fact, his offensive line provided some huge blocking on his 83-yard touchdown. Of course, it didn’t help that, on the play, Steelers safety Mike Mitchell made a terrible play, taking a bad angle; it was Shazier who almost made a play — despite coming from the complete opposite side of the field.
The game featured seven lead changes, providing no shortage of excitement, but it was Dallas that managed to come out on top.
The Cowboys’ last-minute touchdown was made all the more dramatic because the Steelers were 0-4 on their two-point conversion attempts (one attempt was incredibly close.) If Pittsburgh had kicked extra points instead of going for the two points, it might have changed the way the Steelers played defense there at the end — they might have been up by five, not one, as they kicked off to Dallas with less than a minute to go in the game and wouldn’t have had to worry about defending against a field goal.
With the loss, Pittsburgh drops to 4-5 on the season and remains in second place in the AFC North behind the Baltimore Ravens (5-4) and in front of the Cincinnati Bengals (3-4-1) and Cleveland Browns (0-10).
The Steelers now enter the easiest section of their schedule, and the team will need to make a statement to keep its playoff hopes alive.
Image credit: Pittsburgh Steelers
