In this week’s “3 & Out” column, we look at how the Colts were better than the Steelers both on the field and in the coaching booth in handing Pittsburgh its first defeat of the 2024 season.

Steichen > Tomlin (on this day, at least…)

Regular readers of of my commentary on the Steelers probably know I’m a big fan of Mike Tomlin. I understand the detractors who argue he hasn’t won anything lately and who bristle at his streak of never having had a losing season. But his ability to motivate, to get the best from his players and to field competitive teams no matter the circumstance has earned both my respect and admiration.

That said, Tomlin and his staff are not immune from being out-coached on occasion. Sunday in Indianapolis provided another painful example of this. From the outset, the Colts had an excellent game-plan that they executed seamlessly, while the Steelers struggled to adjust and catch up.

It began on the first drive of the game, when Indy took the opening kickoff and marched 70 yards in just under three minutes for a quick touchdown. The Colts began with a chunk play on a laser of a throw from quarterback Anthony Richardson to receiver Michael Pittman that moved the ball into Pittsburgh territory. From there, Indy covered the remaining 38 yards on the ground, running the ball on seven consecutive plays until Jonathan Taylor punched it in from two yards out.

The throw from Richardson to Pittman was individual brilliance, as the young quarterback fit a perfect ball into a tiny window amidst good coverage from the Steelers. The rest of the drive was Steichen and offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter getting the best of Tomlin and Teryl Austin. Indy lined up almost exclusively in 11-personnel sets with three wide receivers on the field, knowing that would prompt the Steelers to respond with their 2-4-5 nickel package. With just two defensive linemen, the Colts’ offensive line bullied Pittsburgh, knocking them off the ball and creating huge run lanes for Richardson and Taylor. If you can bring yourself to watch, you’ll see what I’m talking about in the Twitter link below. Indy opened the box with their formations, then won the battle in the trenches to pave lanes for their physical backs. The fact the Steelers tackled poorly contributed to the defensive misery.

Jonathan Taylor’s best plays from 108-yard game vs. Steelers | Week 4 pic.twitter.com/KShkfOQ6QQ

— Athlete Dynasty (@AthleteDynasty_) September 29, 2024

When Richardson left the game with a hip injury late in the first quarter, the Colts found a new way to torment Pittsburgh’s defense. Joe Flacco, in his seventeenth season in the league, is by no means the dual threat that Richardson presents. But Flacco can read a defense, and he throws the ball accurately and on time. Indy put that to good use by finding matchups they liked and exploiting them. This was particularly true in the fourth quarter, after Pittsburgh had rallied from a 17-0 deficit to close to within one score. On consecutive ten-play drives, one which produced a touchdown and the other a field goal, Flacco moved the chains with crisp passes that were on the money. Indy converted two 3rd-and-10s and two 3rd-and-7s on those drives with throws to Pittman, Josh Downs and Drew Ogletree. On one, Flacco deftly moved out of the pocket as the Steelers blitzed, then exploited a mismatch that saw linebacker Nick Herbig in coverage against the speedy Downs. On another, linebacker Patrick Queen got pulled out of the middle of the field by a crossing route, and Ogletree snuck into the area Queen vacated for a way-too-easy touchdown. It was a perfect route for the man-coverage the Steelers were playing and exemplified how Steichen and Cooter were a step ahead of Tomlin and Austin.

It wasn’t much better for the Steelers on offense. Granted, Justin Fields looked great while rallying Pittsburgh from their big deficit, but the deficit was accumulated in part because Pittsburgh couldn’t handle Indianapolis’s blitz package early on. With a banged-up offensive line and no vertical threats that scared the Colts outside of George Pickens, defensive coordinator Gus Bradley, who is normally a fairly conservative play-caller, felt emboldened to turn up the heat. Indy stifled Pittsburgh’s run game by getting an extra hat to the ball with an array of run blitzes. And they hounded Fields time and again with pressure, sacking him four times and chasing him from the pocket on several other occasions.

In the end, the Colts won the football game because they were more physical and they executed better. But they had a better scheme, too, and that played a huge role in the outcome.

Fields continues to shine

It wasn’t a perfect day for Justin Fields by any stretch of the imagination. Fields had a costly third-quarter fumble on a Pittsburgh possession that began at the Colts’ 33-yard line after a nice punt return from Calvin Austin III. And the four sacks he took, while often the product of an effective Indy pass rush, were also the result of him holding the ball too long and not processing quickly enough. Fields still has a lot of work to do in that area to become one of the better quarterbacks in the league.

That said, the way he brought the Steelers back from the dead was the most exciting result of this otherwise deflating game. Much has been made of how the Steelers aren’t built to recover from big deficits. They have a run-first mentality, a thin receiving corps and a conservative play-caller in Arthur Smith.  But once Smith gave Fields license to make plays, Fields obliged. He was dynamic with both his arm and his legs and conjured memories of classic Ben Roethlisberger with the way he extended plays and made things happen. I doubt the Steelers want Fields to do much more of what transpired in the Twitter clip below, when he ran through an Indianapolis defender at the goal line to score Pittsburgh’s second touchdown. But the passion he played with was inspiring:

JUSTIN FIELDS WITH ANOTHER RUSH TD.

2 TOUCHDOWN GAME FROM QB1.

ON FIRE 🔥🔥
pic.twitter.com/Q0cbV6dHPr

— PickensBurgh🫡 (Tino) (@PickensBurgh) September 29, 2024

Fields finished the day 22-34 for 312 yards and a touchdown and added 55 rushing yards and two TDs. The 367 yards Fields accounted for are the most by a Steelers quarterback in a game since Roethlisberger threw for 501 in a Wild Card playoff loss to the Browns in 2020. Again, there were mistakes. The sacks, the fumble, the botched snap exchange with center Zach Frazier that killed the comeback. It looks as though Frazier was at fault for snapping the ball too early, but Fields has had exchange problems dating back to the pre-season that are yet to be resolved. Still, he is playing the quarterback position better than any Steeler since Roethlisberger in 2020, and the fact he is still so young, and just scratching the surface of his potential, is an exciting development.

3rd down woes

The Steelers defense had been dominant on 3rd downs entering this game, holding opponents to a miserable 7-32 conversion rate. On Sunday, Indianapolis converted 8-15, with many, as previously mentioned, extending crucial drives late in the game as Pittsburgh attempted to claw their way back.

What changed?

I haven’t seen the All-22 film yet, so I can’t say for sure what coverages the Steelers were playing or how the Colts were beating them. But I do know this: Indy’s offensive line did a better job neutralizing Pittsburgh’s pass rush than any opponent the Steelers have faced to date. T.J. Watt was as much of a non-factor as he can be, registering two tackles and no sacks. Nick Herbig was shut out as well. Alex Highsmith’s absence was felt, as Herbig played more snaps than usual and appeared to wear down a bit. Pittsburgh did register two sacks, but on crucial third downs they could not get to Flacco, despite his limited mobility. Credit the Colts offensive line for winning that battle, and fault the Steelers for not finding a way to get off of the field on those crucial downs.

And Out…

The Steelers made a ton of mental errors in addition to their physical ones. One that really hurt was Najee Harris’s failure to get out of bounds on Pittsburgh’s second-to-last offensive snap of the game. After the botched exchange between Frazier and Fields put Pittsburgh in a 2nd-and-22 situation, Fields threw an incompletion to Pickens. On 3rd-and-22, with just over a minute to play and Pittsburgh with one time-out remaining, Harris caught a check-down along the sideline. He ran up-field for an 11-yard gain, but rather than step out of bounds, cut back inside and was wrapped up by an Indianapolis defender. Although Harris ultimately was driven out of bounds, the referee ruled his forward momentum had been stopped and kept the clock running. Pittsburgh, not wanting to burn their final time-out, then rushed in a play on 4th-and-10, which ended as an incompletion to kill the comeback.

Perhaps the Steelers should have used that final time-out anyway and taken the time to call a play they really liked. However, if Harris had simply stepped out of bounds, they wouldn’t have been forced to rush. That mental mistake was the cherry on top of an afternoon filled with them for the Steelers.