Behind the Steel Curtain
The Pittsburgh Steelers have lost their third game in four weeks with a 25-10 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, sending them to 5-4 on the season. The offense had by far its worst performance of the season, while the defense did all it could to limit the Chargers. Here is this week’s Varsity and JV performers.
Herbig is currently the Steelers’ best edge rusher. He had a sack and two tackles for loss, which brings his season total to 5.5 sacks and eight TFLs. For comparison, he had 5.5 sacks all of last season and five TFLs, as well. He has taken such a big leap forward and continues to be one of the brightest stars on Pittsburgh’s defense.
Benton continues to get better. He had a sack and two tackles for loss and totaled seven tackles on the night, consistently disrupting plays from the interior.
Watt added a sack to his season total, which gives him six on the season. He also had a batted pass at the line of scrimmage and three hits on Justin Herbert.
Highsmith has stacked two great performances, as he now has consecutive games with two sacks. He also had two tackles for loss and three hits on Justin Herbert.
Despite the rare miss, Boswell hit a 59-yard field goal, which was the Steelers’ only real points of the game before Roman Wilson scored in garbage time.
Warren averaged five yards per carry and was consistently explosive with the ball in his hands. He leaped over a defender for the offensive highlight of the night, and it was frustrating to see the Steelers not lean into the run game when it was working all night.
Pierre came in after Darius Slay left the game due to a head injury, and he played well, holding his own with strong coverage and notching two passes defended to prevent completions.
Not only was this Aaron Rodgers’ worst game as a Steeler, but you could make the case that it was the worst game of his career. He airmailed multiple passes, most notably a touchdown that was overthrown to DK Metcalf and a big gain inside the red zone that was too tall for Jonnu Smith to bring in. He also threw two interceptions (one of which did hit Calvin Austin directly in the hands). In totality, Rodgers was 16-of-31 for 161 yards with a QBR of 4.6.
Rodgers was pressured eight times and on just over 23 percent of dropbacks, per Next Gen Stats. While he was bad, so, too, was his protection.
Just everything with the passing game was brutal. Rodgers was hesitant to pull the trigger in some instances. Calvin Austin had a ball hit him directly in the hands, which he...
