Turnover-riddled Steelers tumble into last place in division
Jets free safety Jaiquawn Jarrett tackles Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown during the first half Sunday.
Steelers running back LeGarrette Blount is tackled by Jets linebacker Quinton Coples as teammate Antonio Allen closes in near the goal line during the second half Sunday.
Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger threw two costly interceptions Sunday against the Jets.
Jets running back Chris Ivory hurdles Steelers cornerback William Gay during the first half Sunday.
MEADOWLANDS, N.J. – So much for Mike Tomlin’s warnings.
The Steelers head coach spent much of the past week hammering home that the New York Jets were 1-8 largely because they had turned the ball over 18 times while forcing only three of their own.
The Steelers helped the Jets improve on that ratio.
Pittsburgh turned the football over a season-high four times and permitted the Jets to jump to a 17-0 first-quarter lead en route to a 20-13 victory at MetLife Stadium.
“We shot ourselves in the foot,” said Tomlin. “We talked all week about why that team had struggled, because they were last in the league at minus-15. Well, they weren’t today.”
As a result, the Steelers, who entered the day tied with Cleveland atop the AFC North standings at 6-3, now find themselves in the basement at 6-4.
“Well, it wasn’t a step forward,” said Steelers defensive end Brett Keisel. “It’s crazy. In this league, sometimes you’re a part of these games, where it just seems like things don’t go your way.”
That was certainly the case for the Steelers. And the Jets (2-8) took advantage early.
Coming off of back-to-back games with six touchdown passes, Ben Roethlisberger struggled early to find rhythm. Roethlisberger completed 11 of his first 15 passes but for only 54 yards, continually taking checkdown passes or screens that were blown up.
“They were taking away the deep routes and giving us the underneath pass,” said Roethlisberger, who finished with 343 yards and one touchdown, but also had two interceptions.
New York methodically used its running game on the opening possession, going 72 yards and eating up more than half of the first quarter before settling for a 23-yard Nick Folk field goal and a 3-0 lead.
While that possession was a long one, the Jets’ next one took just 10 seconds off the clock. Michael Vick, who threw for just 132 yards, accounted for more than half of that by connecting with T.J. Graham for a 67-yard bomb over cornerback William Gay.
Things went from bad to worse for the Steelers when normally sure-handed receiver Antonio Brown, who had lost just two career fumbles, was stripped of the ball after catching a short pass in traffic. Safety Jaiquawn Jarrett, who also had two interceptions, recovered.
Vick, who ran for 39 yards to become the first QB in league history with 6,000 career rushing yards, then threw a 5-yard TD pass to tight end Jace Amaro to put the Jets ahead 17-0.
The Steelers appeared to right the ship on their next possession, driving to the New York 10. But Roethlisberger’s pass for rookie Martavis Bryant at the goal line was batted into the air and intercepted by Jarrett.
After getting a stop at the two-minute warning, Brown muffed a punt and Graham recovered at the Pittsburgh 28. But the Steelers defense held and Folk missed a 45-yard field goal attempt.
Roethlisberger quickly maneuvered the Steelers into field goal range in the final 51 seconds and Shaun Suisham kicked a career-long 53-yard field goal to send Pittsburgh into the locker room down 17-3.
The Steelers moved the ball to open the second half, only to have Roethlisberger overthrow Markus Wheaton. Jarrett intercepted that pass at the New York 20.
“I took too much off the pass,” said Roethlisberger.
Later in the quarter, Gay had a chance for an interception inside the Pittsburgh 5 and dropped the ball. The Jets tacked on another Folk field goal, this one from 30 yards, to make it 20-3.
Pittsburgh drove to the New York 4 on its ensuing possession, but Le’Veon Bell was stopped for a one-yard loss on third-and-1. Instead of attempting to go for it on fourth-and-2 from the 5, Tomlin elected to try to cut into the lead with a field goal.
“I thought we had an opportunity to get it to a two-score game,” Tomlin said. “Obviously, we didn’t make the kick.”
Suisham missed the 23-yard attempt wide left.
“There’s no excuse,” said Suisham. “I just missed it.”
By the time he got another opportunity, with 7:25 remaining, his 27-yard field goal trimmed the lead to 20-6. But there wasn’t enough time remaining to seriously challenge the Jets, even though Roethlisberger connected with Bryant for an 80-yard bomb with 1:28 left.
“We just dug ourselves too big of a hole,” said Keisel. “You can’t do that in this league. But I still believe in this team. I do. We’ve just got to be better moving forward in these final six games.”
Brown had eight receptions for 74 yards to move past Lynn Swann (336) and into fifth place on the team’s all-time receptions list. Brown has 340 receptions. … Bryant caught four passes for a career-high 143 yards and now has six touchdowns in four games, an NFL record. … Bell had eight receptions for 33 yards. He has 55 catches for the season, the most by a Steelers running back after passing John L. Williams, who had 51 in 1994. … The Steelers had four sacks, including 1 1/2 by Jason Worilds.