Pittsburgh Steelers Week 9 Recap: Attack
on the Titans!

The Pittsburgh Steelers faced the Tennessee Titans on Thursday night football.
The Titans / Steelers rivalry has been played 81 times (including 4 postseason games), with the Tennessee Titans winning 32 games and the Pittsburgh Steelers winning 49 games. Pittsburgh Steelers lead the series 49-32-0.

Since 2003, the Titans are 3-8 against the Steelers. Even worse, when playing in Pittsburgh, the Titans are 1-5 in that stretch. Since 2013, the Titans are 0-4 against the Steelers. Whether at home or away, the Titans haven't beaten them in 10 years. Regardless of the circumstances, the Titans can't seem to come out on top. The Titans tried to End the Steelers' 20 Years of Dominance on Thursday Night…but came up short once again.

The game wasn’t pretty but honestly, has any Pittsburgh game been
pretty all year? but it was a close game through out. The Titans even went into halftime with the lead 13-10. But let’s start at the beginning, the Steelers won the toss and decided to go out on offense first. This was a shock because most teams that win the toss elect to kick the ball away and get the ball first after halftime.

 

But Pittsburgh needed to change things up. That started with Matt Canada leaving the box and actually calling plays from the sideline. Pittsburgh, who has really struggled to score this year, ESPECIALLY in the first quarter decided to get the ball to start the game. 10 plays later they scored a touchdown! This was a sight for sore eyes ! We desperately need to start scoring the ball early so we don’t always have to play from behind.

It looked like we might have had an easy night on this prime time game.  But The Titans were here to fight. This team is as tough as their Head Coach, Mike Vrabel, even with a rookie QB leading the way. Will Levis only had one start under his belt going into Thursday but what a start it was! He was 19/29, 238 passing yards ! 4 touchdowns and a 130.5 passer rating !
America! This kid got talent!

So despite being a rookie, the Pittsburgh Steelers couldn’t take him lightly.
Our sophomore quarterback Kenny Pickett was coming into the game with a rib injury. A injury that took him out of the last game on Sunday. I didn’t even think he would be able to play four days later. But he toughed it out and started the game for the Steelers.

Being down 13-10 at halftime was frustrating because Kenny was
missing some throws. We had a couple opportunities slip through our finger tips (literally) because of over thrown passes or under thrown balls. Like always, our fantastic defense was there to keep us in the game. We sacked the rookie 4 times through out the game. But finally it was our offense that showed up when it mattered most.

 

It was the fourth quarter and the Steelers were down 16-13. The defense only allowed one FG the entire second half! But our offense wasn’t looking very hot until Kenny Pickett hit Diontae Johnson on a game winning touchdown!

Diontae's first touchdown all year! He had an outstanding day! 7 rec, 90 yards, 12 yards per play, 1 touchdown.

The Titans Rookie QB had a chance to have his first ever comeback win though. He showed a lot of maturity and leadership abilities in this moment. He wasn’t scared at all and was slinging the ball down the field. He knew the team needed a touchdown and a FG wouldn’t do them any good.

Unfortunately for him, The Steelers knew that as well and played it perfectly intercepting the ball and ending the game, while he was taking a shot in the end zone.

Mike Tomlin and the Pittsburgh Steelers have made it tough on rookie QBs! The Steelers have the best win percentage vs. rookie quarterback since 2006. Pittsburgh has a 25-5 record against rookie QBs under Mike Tomlin.
 

It wasn’t pretty, but the Steelers got the win! Kenny Pickett now has 6 fourth quarter comeback wins in his career. Second most in the NFL since 2022 !

Steelers keep winning ugly: At 5-3, the Steelers are the 34th team since 1933 – when rushing and receiving stats were first tracked – to be out-gained in each of their first 8 games of a season; they’re the only one of those who had a winning record. The Steelers are also the only team this season to be out-gained in every game, and they’ve been out-gained by -790 yards, 2nd worst to only the Broncos (-830).

This makes the Steelers the only team in the Super Bowl era to have a winning record through 8 games despite being out gained every game.

Final: Steelers beat The Titans 20-16
AFC NORTH standings
Ravens: 6-2
Steelers: 5-3
Browns: 4-3
Bengals: 4-3