It went into the standings as a victory, making Pittsburgh the winningest team in the history of France, it was another workman like performance across the Atlantic. Behind a dominant defensive front and just enough clutch playmaking late, the Steelers handled the business trip to Stade de France, outlasting the New Orleans Saints 16-10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Jaylen Warren train continued to chug down the tracks in France. His monster season continued with another terrific outing, racking up 101 rushing yards and 36 receiving yards while averaging a blistering 6.5 yards per touch. He\u2019s playing as well as any running back in the NFL right now. This is becoming a weekly critique, but Mike McCarthy continues to underutilize Warren. To his credit, Rico Dowdle was effective at times Sunday too, battling through a knee injury that had him questionable entering the game to produce 86 yards on 15 touches. Warren might have to be featured more at certain points, but the backfield rotation was effective enough to secure the win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On a day when his counterpart had a critical turnover, the most important thing Aaron Rodgers did Sunday in Paris was protect the lead, and scramble like his younger self when the Steelers desperately needed it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His 8-yard run on third down late in the fourth quarter was the ultimate dagger. Rodgers recognized the temperature of the game and kept errors to a minimum, finishing 19-for-30 for 212 yards and a touchdown. He missed a few throws and took three sacks, but he executed the short passing game alongside a steady ground attack (148 team rushing yards, 4.9 YPC) to milk the final 5:52 off the clock. Some games require Rodgers to throw three touchdowns; on this day, they simply needed him to manage the game and use his legs for one clutch first down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mt Washington might be the Pittsburgh Eiffel Tower now. Darnell Washington must be the goto more often in goal-to-go situations. Washington had just one reception, but it was a beauty, making a contested catch in the end zone and scraping his feet in bounds for six. Metcalf was held to two catches for 56 yards, though his 51-yard launch earlier in the drive set up Washington’s score.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was a quiet day for rookie Germie Bernard (3 catches, 27 yards), but Brandon Smith came through with a diving 20-yard catch on third down to set up a field goal, redeeming himself after a personal foul penalty on the opening drive. On the offensive line, Spencer Anderson reprised his role as a jumbo tight end for the first time this season to boost the run game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was not a great day for pass protection. Left tackle Troy Fautanu struggled with Chase Young, who beat him twice for sacks. Mason McCormick also took a personal foul late in the first half that wiped away a prime touchdown chance, forcing Pittsburgh to settle for three. They can’t make those mistakes against better opponents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Defensively, the front set a punishing tone. The Saints were held to 18 rushing yards on 17 carries. Their longest run was a 6-yard scramble by quarterback Tyler Shough, while New Orleans running backs managed a long run of just three yards. The Steelers completely erased the run and forced a one-dimensional game plan. While the interior pass rush was still lacking, when they don’t get home, they are better than any team in the league at batting balls down at the line. Keeanu Benton, Cam Heyward, and Yahya Black all swatted passes. Black and Heyward’s deflections on the Saints’ final drive forced a crucial 3rd-and-10, setting up a game-ending sack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Payton Wilson\u2019s interception was arguably the play of the game. After the Saints put together a 14-play drive to open the second half, Wilson ended the threat with a nifty pick and an even niftier somersault return to get back on his feet, adding six tackles on the afternoon. Patrick Queen was a force with 10 tackles and registered the final sack, he almost had an interception as well. He hammered Shough to close the door. T.J. Watt added a sack, though the edge rushers were mostly held at bay by the Saints’ tackles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the secondary, it was a bend-but-don’t-break strategy, giving up underneath routes to prevent getting burned deep. Shough completed 30 of 38 passes for 278 yards and a touchdown, finding soft spots against the top three corners, particularly Jamel Dean. The Saints converted two fourth downs on their lone touchdown drive, including an easy 1-yard score to Devaughn Vele with Jalen Ramsey in coverage. Shough didn’t do much wrong, but Wilson stepped up with the game-altering takeaway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Special teams delivered another Jekyll and Hyde performance. After taking a 10-3 lead, the kickoff coverage unit surrendered a 42-yard return to near midfield, allowing New Orleans to drive just 52 yards for the tying score before halftime. Coverage improved in the second half, but giving up that momentum was inexcusable. On the positive side, rookie Kaden Wetjen provided juice with 60 kickoff return yards (including a 35-yarder to open the game) and a 22-yard punt return. Chris Boswell was a perfect 3-for-3, including a 47-yard strike as time expired in the first half after a fire-drill rush onto the field following a Rodgers sack. Boswell also hit what would have been the game-clincher late, but was not needed as New Orleans went offside to seal the victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BEER WE GO STEELERS, BEER WE GO!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My \u201cGAME BEER\u201d goes to:<\/strong> Jaylen Warren. 101 rushing yards, 36 receiving yards, and 6.5 yards per touch across the pond. He continues to be the engine of this offense. Also Considered:<\/em><\/strong> Payton Wilson for his game-saving somersault interception, and Aaron Rodgers for executing the game-clutching 8-yard scramble to put it away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Beer of the Game:<\/strong> LONG STORY BUT NO BEER THIS WEEK. YUP you read that right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Steel the Snacks:<\/strong> We had planned a New Orleans Steel the Snacks but again, long story and no snacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My stat of the week:<\/strong> 18 rushing yards allowed on 17 carries. Holding an NFL team to roughly one yard per carry forces them into predictable passing situations every single drive. Also UNDEFEATED in France! \ud83d\ude0a<\/p>\n\n\n\n My thoughts on next week:<\/strong> The Steelers return home from France sitting in a great position, but the undisciplined penalties and kickoff coverage lapses need immediate fixing. If McCarthy continues to lean on Warren and the defensive front keeps batting down passes, Pittsburgh will remain tough to beat. This is a revenge game against the Browns<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jersey of the Week:<\/strong> Still no jersey again, it’s been a weird year, and they are still not unpacked! Next week we will be breaking out the gamer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It went into the standings as a victory, making Pittsburgh the winningest team in the history of France, it was another workman like performance across the Atlantic. Behind a dominant defensive front and just enough clutch playmaking late, the Steelers handled the business trip to Stade de France, outlasting the New Orleans Saints 16-10. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bwg-gr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bwgsteelers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bwgsteelers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bwgsteelers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bwgsteelers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bwgsteelers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3769"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/bwgsteelers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3770,"href":"http:\/\/bwgsteelers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3769\/revisions\/3770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bwgsteelers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bwgsteelers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bwgsteelers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}