The Pittsburgh Steelers shocked a lot of people with their 27-20 win over the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday. Mike Tomlin’s been able to get it done as a home underdog many times in the past, but things weren’t looking great after an incredibly poor performance against Green Bay the week prior.
After not forcing a turnover for about a month, the Steelers came away with six on Sunday. While he does give the Steelers credit, former NFL DL Chris Canty also thinks the Colts essentially gave the game away.
“Six turnovers in one game, when they [Colts] only had four all year. That’s how I look at it, I think it’s an aberration and outlier performance,” Canty said Monday on ESPN’s Unsportsmanlike. “The two losses that they do have, you can make the argument that they gave the game away, both literally and figuratively. Not taking anything away from Pittsburgh, ’cause I thought that was an awesome performance from them, offense and defense.”
Technically speaking, the Colts did give the game away with six turnovers. It started in the first quarter, when they muffed a punt while holding a 7-0 lead. The Steelers didn’t take advantage of that opportunity, but they certainly did with the other five. Daniel Jones threw three interceptions, one into the chest of Payton Wilson, one to Joey Porter Jr. and the other coming off a batted ball. He was also strip-sacked by both T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith.
Canty isn’t wrong that the version of the Colts we saw yesterday isn’t the same as the one we’ve seen all year. Jonathan Taylor ran the ball just 14 times, and they probably didn’t expect Jones to have to drop back more than 50 times. However, the Steelers deserve credit for making them one-dimensional.
Wilson’s interception is a good example. At first glance, it looks more like Jones throws it right to him than anything else. And he does, but it’s still a clever play by Wilson. His first assignment is Jonathan Taylor. But when Taylor struggles to get past the line of scrimmage Wilson does well to read the eyes of Jones, who never expected him to be there in the first place.
Jones doesn’t have to throw the ball straight at Wilson. But Wilson should still get his credit for being in the right place at the right time.
It seems the Steelers’ defense forces turnovers in waves. Sunday was a tsunami of them. But while the Colts haven’t turned it over much this year, it’s not as if they handed the Steelers a win. The Steelers were flying around the field and forced each turnover. They were getting in the backfield and clogging up passing lanes from the second quarter onward.
Whether the Steelers can keep this momentum rolling is the next question. The schedule doesn’t get much easier in the coming weeks. And their lead in the AFC North is still a slim two games. However, the Steelers’ spirits are surely high for now after such an impressive win against the top seed in the conference.