Steelers’ skid continues vs. Cowboys
Dallas rookie running back Ezekiel Elliott scored two key touchdowns in a wild 35-30 victory at Pittsburgh. The game featured eight lead changes.
The Cowboys’ Cedric Thornton delivers a big hit on Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger Sunday at Heinz Field.
Steelers tight end Jesse James leaps over a Dallas defender during a fourth-quarter drive that resulted in a touchdown.
PITTSBURGH – The Steelers found themselves in a shootout at the OK Corral Sunday.
And you never want to get into an old West shootout with cowboys.
Rookie running back Ezekiel Elliott, forced to stand and watch for long stretches as Pittsburgh’s offense rolled up 448 yards, played the sheriff in this western. Held to seven carries for 34 yards in the first half, Elliott showed in the second half why he entered this game as the NFL’s leading rusher.
Elliott scored on runs of 14 and 32 yards as Dallas twice rallied for go-ahead scores in the final two minutes to beat the Steelers, 35-30, in a game that featured eight lead changes before a record crowd of 67,737 at Heinz Field.
The loss was Pittsburgh’s fourth consecutive and put the Steelers (4-5) a game behind Baltimore (5-4) in the AFC North.
“It’s not mystical, it isn’t OK, we won’t accept it, we can’t accept it,” said Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. “(We didn’t) have enough play making in those critical moments. The Cowboys made critical plays and we didn’t. We have to take responsibility for that. It affected the outcome.”
None of those plays was more critical for Dallas (8-1) than the ones by Elliott, who finished with 114 yards on 21 carries.
In the first half, he caught a short screen pass and, after getting some early blocks, raced down the sideline past the Pittsburgh bench for an 83-yard touchdown from fellow rookie quarterback Dak Prescott.
That one, which cut Pittsburgh’s lead to 12-10, hurt. But it was his two touchdown runs in the final two minutes that did the most damage.
The first came on the initial play following the two-minute warning with the Steelers clinging to a 29-24 lead.
Elliott, whose longest run to that point had been eight yards, went untouched off right tackle for a 14-yard TD that gave Dallas a 29-24 lead. The Cowboys missed a two-point conversion – one of six failed conversions in the game, two by Dallas and four by the Steelers.
Ben Roethlisberger, who threw for 408 yards and three touchdowns, deftly maneuvered the Steelers back into scoring range and put Pittsburgh back on top, 30-29, with a 15-yard touchdown pass to Antonio Brown with 43 seconds remaining.
Roethlisberger, who had just completed a 24-yard pass to tight end Jesse James, ran the Steelers up to the line of scrimmage and faked spiking the ball to stop the clock before throwing to Brown, who streaked down the sideline with Leon McFadden in coverage.
“They were reeling, we were moving on them and wanted to take a shot at them,” said Roethlisberger.
The Steelers went for a two-point conversion that would have put them ahead by three points, but Roethlisberger’s attempt at an underhanded flip to James as he rolled left was broken up by Pittsburgh running back Fitzgerald Toussaint, who also had a chance to catch it.
While Dallas’ defense might have been reeling, the Cowboys’ offense was undaunted.
“Forty seconds is a lot of time, especially with three timeouts,” said Prescott, who threw for 319 yards and two scores. “That’s really what I was thinking about. Just saying over and over, ‘We do this in practices every Thursday, 40 seconds and three timeouts. I can attack anywhere on the field.”
The rookie did just that. After a first-down incompletion to tight end Jason Witten, he completed a 10-yard pass over the middle to Cole Beasley. Then, he found Witten for a 13-yard gain, using timeouts to stop the clock after both plays.
With 23 seconds remaining, Prescott completed another throw to Witten, for five yards. Witten struggled to get to the sideline, but was mobbed by several Pittsburgh defenders and wrestled to the ground. Rookie safety Sean Davis was penalized for a quick grab of Witten’s facemask. Instead of being forced to use its final timeout to stop the clock at the Pittsburgh 47 with 15 seconds to play, Dallas had a first down at the 32, well within field-goal range for Dan Bailey, who made a 53-yarder earlier in the game.
“I was just trying to get him down,” said Davis. “Those seconds are valuable. I was trying to get him down and poke the ball. Once I felt my fingers in his facemask, I let go. But it was so fast.”
Elliott made it a moot point on the next play. The Steelers stacked the line of scrimmage, but Elliott burst through untouched and went 32 yards for a score to make it 35-30.
“Our offense gave us the score when we needed it,” said Steelers defensive end Stephon Tuitt. “As a defense, we let them down. We let that team come back and score without enough time to give it back to our offense. We let our offense down big time.”
Inside linebacker Lawrence Timmons took responsibility for the final score.
“That play at the end, that’s a play I make every time,” said Timmons. “I’ve got to make it there.”
Pittsburgh’s offense made things tough on the Cowboys, getting a pair of touchdowns from running back Le’Veon Bell and a TD catch from Eli Rogers.
The Steelers went for a two-point conversion after all four of their touchdowns. They failed on all four.
“We had a couple of times when guys just slipped and we didn’t make the plays when we needed to,” said Roethlisberger.
The Steelers had been 20-for-26 on two-point conversions before Sunday. … Tight end Ladarius Green made his debut for the Steelers after being activated Saturday and had three catches for 30 yards. … The Steelers had two sacks, one each by Anthony Chickillo and Tuitt. … Linebacker Steven Johnson suffered a broken ankle and safety Shamarko Thomas left the game with a groin injury. … Brown had 14 catches for 154 yards and a touchdown, Dez Bryant has six receptions for 116 yards and a score for Dallas.