EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The Steelers and Jets both started the season at 1-4 having lost their starting quarterback early in the season.
For the Steelers, Ben Roethlisberger left the team's second game at halftime with an elbow injury and hasn't played since. For the Jets, Sam Darnold was diagnosed with mononucleosis after a 17-16 loss to the Bills in Week 1 and sat out the next three games.
The difference? While the Steelers have rebounded to get to 8-6, the Jets have muddled along and sit at 5-9, despite having Darnold return to the lineup in Week 6.
Things haven't exactly worked out as either team drew things up before the season began, but for the Steelers, at least their playoff hopes are still very much alive. And that's what they'll put on the line when they face the Jets Sunday at Met Life Stadium.
For the Steelers, who have 10 starters with three years or less experience, just going through a playoff chase -- sans Roethlisberger -- has been a learning experience. After putting themselves in such a hole early has made every week since something of a playoff game.
"I think we’re seasoned and battled tested because of it," Cam Heyward told me this week. "But I just love the way they approach it. I don’t think anyone is surprised or the moment feels too big for them. We’ve got to clean up some stuff and get back to work."
What they have to clean up after is perhaps their most disappointing game since a Week 1 loss to the Patriots. The Steelers turned the ball over a season-high five times in a 17-10 loss to the Bills last week, gaining a season-low 229 yards.
There have been other losses this season, but losing like that, at home, with a chance to solidify a spot in the postseason was a huge disappointment.
"It was a really tough defeat for us. They all are, who are we kidding," Mike Tomlin said. "But particularly when you are in a game like that against a team that is in a similar place with similar goals and a lot of tangible things right in front of us. To not get the job done was disappointing."
Picking up the pieces and moving on with another big game remaining is the task at hand. And that starts first with rookie quarterback Devlin Hodges. Hodges was picked off four times while suffering his first loss in four starts.
Tomlin is sticking with Hodges this week, giving him a chance to rebound. If that doesn't happen quickly, however, Tomlin could turn back to Mason Rudolph, who went 5-3 as a starter subbing for Roethlisberger.
"No, I don’t," Hodges said when asked if that will be on his mind in this game. "I don’t think any of the coaches are thinking about that because I don’t think any of the coaches are expecting me to have a bad game. They expect me to learn and get better and play well."
Jets head coach Adam Gase could say the same about Darnold. The second-year quarterback has had some ups and downs since he's returned, throwing four interceptions in a loss to the Patriots and three the following week in a defeat at Jacksonville, but he's been much better of late.
In his past seven games, Darnold has 12 touchdown passes and four interceptions, leading the Jets to a 4-3 record. Like the Steelers, the Jets have a lot of young starters -- seven, including Darnold -- so they'd like a strong finish in Gase's first season with the team.
“When we start this thing up next season, this offseason, you’re going to remember these next couple games,” Jets linebacker Brandon Copeland said. “You’re going to remember the entire season, but you’re also going to remember these next couple of games. You’ll remember if somebody folded, God forbid, you’ll remember who’s playing hard.
“There are things we can build on from a confidence standpoint, still things we have to do to grow as a team. We went through a lot of growth this season and hopefully we can get more growing pains out of the way, so the next year we can start off rolling.”
Of course, the Jets also have 11 players on this week's injury report and have 16 players on injured reserve, including three starting linebackers.
The Steelers, meanwhile, are getting healthy at the right time. This game will mark the first time in the past six games -- outside of one quarter against the Browns -- the Steelers will have their full compliment of players available on offense as JuJu Smith-Schuster and Vance McDonald are set to play in this game after James Conner returned last week.
While the Jets are out of the playoff hunt, the Steelers would like their learning experiences to continue in the postseason, and getting all of those players back should help. Regular season games that are like playoff games still aren't quite playoff games. They don't have that finality to them, so the stakes aren't quite as high.
The Steelers have 23 players on their roster with playoff experience and they'd like to increase that to perhaps build on for next season when Roethlisberger returns.
"I like it. I think it’s good," said guard David DeCastro. "I think we’ve got a good group, a good room. It’s a lot of young guys. They’re coming along a lot faster. They’re doing a good job, all things considered with all the young guys we have."
THE ESSENTIALS
• Who: Steelers (8-6) vs. Jets (5-9)
• When: 1:02 p.m.
• Where: Met Life Stadium
• Radio: 102.5 WDVE, ESPN Pittsburgh
• Satellite: SiriusXM 230, Internet 826
• Forecast: 44 degrees, mostly sunny
• Lots open: 9 a.m.
• Will call open: 11 a.m.
• Gates open: 11 a.m.
• Boxscore: NFL Game Center
• Odds: MyBookie.AG
THE INJURY REPORT
Steelers: None
Jets: OL Tom Compton (calf, doubtful), WR Demaryius Thomas (hamstring/knee, doubtful), S Jamal Adams (ankle, questionable), WR Robby Anderson (illness, questionable), DL Henry Anderson (shoulder, questionable), OT Kelvin Beachum (ankle, questionable), CB Arthur Maulet (calf, questionable), DL Steve Mclendon (knee, questionable), CB Brian Poole (concussion/ankle, questionable), RB Bilal Powell (ankle, questionable), DL Quinnen Williams (neck, questionable)
THE KEY VARIABLE
That Minkah Fitzpatrick has made an impact on the Steelers defense is a well-known fact. Since coming over from the Dolphins following a trade in September, the free safety has had a hand in eight turnovers, making five interceptions, forcing one fumble and recovering two others.
That's of no surprise to Gase, who drafted Fitzpatrick 11th in the 2018 draft when he was head coach of the Dolphins. Gase was fired by Miami at the end of the 2018 season and immediately hired by the Jets.
"To see Minkah play the way he has played since he has gotten there, I paid attention to him being with him in Miami and I am happy for him that he has had the success he is having," Gase said. "He is playing exactly the position he was drafted to play. You can tell he is playing as aggressive as those guys need him to play. The ball finds him. He has a knack. You throw a ball in his area, he finds a way to get his hands on the football.”
Fitzpatrick was named to the Pro Bowl earlier this week and has helped the Steelers forge one of the best defenses in the NFL.
But he also has now gone five weeks without a turnover, as opposing teams have gone away from attempting to throw a lot of passes in his area. Gase figures to continue that.
Fitzpatrick, however, also has a good working knowledge of Gase's offense, having practiced against it regularly while with the Dolphins last season.
"It’s similar in ways. It’s not the exact same thing," Fitzpatrick said. "Play style and the way he runs it similar. It’s his offense. (Play callers) don’t like to change up a whole lot.
"I practiced against them a little while. So there are some things you remember happening."
That could be a key component to this game. Fitzpatrick has fallen off the NFL lead for interceptions with five, one behind Buffalo's Tre'Davious White and New England's Stephon Gilmore. If he can get his hands on a pass or two in this game by recognizing something he's seen in the past, it would go a long way toward helping the Steelers win.
"The guy is a phenomenal locker room guy, a phenomenal worker," Gase said of Fitzpatrick. "He just does everything right. He plays the game the way you want a player to play it.”
THE HISTORY LESSON
The 2003 Steelers finished 6-10 and bad enough that they were in a position to select Roethlisberger with the 11th pick of the 2004 draft.
One of the ways they reached that record -- their only losing record in this millennium -- came Dec. 14, 2003 against the Jets at Giants Stadium.
The Steelers entered the game at 5-8 with hopes of still getting to .500 and having a chance to stay alive in the playoff race against the equally bad Jets (5-8).
But it was not to be. A snowstorm rocked the East Coast Saturday night, leaving a blanket of several inches of snow across northern New Jersey. Roads were shut down. Events cancelled.
Events, except for the Steelers' game that day against the Jets.
The game kicked off with less than 40,000 people in the stands as ushers worked hard to clean the snow out of the stadium. Some fans built snowmen and put them in their seats.
There also was a stiff 15-mph wind throughout the game that affected the passing games of both teams.
But the Steelers were a passing offense that season with Tommy Maddox at the helm and they weren't going to stop then, despite the presence of Jerome Bettis in their backfield.
The Jets took the opening kickoff and methodically moved downfield, with quarterback Chad Pennington completing 5 of 6 passes, most of them dump offs, to set up a 28-yard Doug Brien field goal.
Little did anyone know, that would be the only points needed in the game.
Brien added another field goal at the end of the half to make it 6-0, a score that would stand up the remainder of the game.
Jeff Reed missed a 43-yard field goal on the Steelers' first possession, then also missed a 20-yard attempt on the opening drive of the second half, as the Steelers were unable to do anything about the 6-0 lead.
Prior to the second missed field goal, the Steelers had first-and-goal at the New York 3, but Amos Zereoue was stopped for no gain on first down and Maddox threw incomplete to Jay Riemersma and Hines Ward on back-to-back plays in the end zone to force the kick.
Curtis Martin ripped off a 56-yard run to get the Jets off their own goal line, but Mike Logan recovered a Pennington fumble to give the Steelers life.
Maddox drove the Steelers to the New York 16, but four-straight incompletions turned the ball over on downs with 2:48 remaining in the game.
The Steelers got the ball back at their own 45 with just over 2 minutes remaining, but Maddox threw four consecutive incompletions to end any chances of a comeback.
Maddox finished 16 of 38, having missed on his final eight throws of the game, for 137 yards. Bettis had 16 carries for 68 yards and Zereoue 7 for 24 as the Steelers ran the ball just 24 times for 94 yards.
Pennington, meanwhile, was 15 of 25 for 144 yards, as the Jets leaned heavily on Martin. The former Pitt star had 30 carries for 174 yards as the Jets ran for 176 yards in the snow.
The game was overshadowed by the fact that, overnight, U.S. troops had found former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein hiding in a hole at a compound.
Even that news didn't bolster Steelers fans, who saw their team fall to 5-9, guaranteeing a losing season.
THE MAIN MATCHUP
There were five quarterbacks selected in the first round of the 2018 draft, including a record four in the first 10 picks. The Steelers have faced three of those five this season, going 1-3 in those games.
Their only victory came in a rematch a few weeks ago against the Browns' Baker Mayfield after he had beaten them, 21-7, in Week 11 in Cleveland.
Mayfield was the top overall pick in last year's draft, while Darnold went with the third pick to the Jets. The Bills selected Josh Allen, who beat the Steelers last week, seventh overall, while Baltimore's Lamar Jackson was taken with the 32nd selection. He beat the Steelers in overtime back in Week 5 and is the likely NFL MVP.
The only one the Steelers haven't faced this season has been Josh Rosen, who was taken 10th and then traded to Miami in the offseason.
"There are a lot of top-notch young quarterbacks in the league," Tomlin said. "I think that is just one of the things that stands out to me when watching (Darnold) this week just thinking back to recent weeks in some of the things some of the young quarterbacks we have seen. There is a lot of young talented signal callers in football today."
Darnold might not quite be in Jackson's class when it comes to that group, but he's been pretty good. He's thrown 34 touchdown passes in his 24 starts, with 12 touchdowns and four interceptions in his past seven.
"He has gotten better. He throws the ball well, he is accurate," said Steelers defensive coordinator Keith Butler. "He rarely gets fooled in terms of holding the ball and stuff like that where he panics. What we have to do is get him in those situations as much as we can."
It doesn't hurt that the Jets have started running the ball more, as well. The Jets didn't run for more than 100 yards in each of their first nine games, but have done so three times in their past six games. Le'Veon Bell is coming off his best game with the Jets, having rushed for 87 yards on 21 carries last week in a 42-21 loss to the Ravens.
The Steelers are well versed in Bell's start-stop running style.
"You’ve got to attack him," Bud Dupree said. "You can’t let him come to you, you’ve got to go to him. You’ve got to meet him before he gets going."
The Steelers allowed 131 yards last week in the loss to the Bills and know they can't have that kind of day against the Jets and expect to win. Allowing the Jets to run the ball effectively won't allow them to attack Darnold the way they would like with the league's top-rated pass rush.
"We expect to get the moving pockets," Heyward said. "The type of team we have, if you just sit back there and try to throw, we’re going to get after you. You’ve got to mix it up, whether it’s going max-pro and keeping everyone in with two-man routes or moving the pocket, screens, quick passes, different things to get us off kilter. If you don’t, we’re going to hit you early."
The Jets would like to avoid that and have done a good job protecting Darnold in recent weeks. Despite being sacked 29 times in his 11 starts, just 14 have come in his last seven games.
“This is a tough defense,” said Gase. “These guys are playing really well right now. We are going to have to do a really good job of trying to get positive plays and avoid these negative plays and sacks. These guys have been doing an unbelievable job against every offense they have been playing. These guys don’t give a bunch of big plays up.”
THE QUOTES
• "Facing (Jets defensive coordinator) Gregg Williams is going to be challenging, but particularly so when you have a young quarterback. If you look at what the Jets have done, particularly of late, the run that they have been on in winning games, I think their ability to get after young quarterbacks has been a catalyst for that. The Washington game, the Giants game has kind of been a spring board for them. They have gotten after some young quarterbacks in ways that they get after people." -- Tomlin
• "Any time JuJu is in the game, it just adds another weapon. Its like Coach Tomlin says, any guys that wears a helmet or has a hat on, we have to count our guys. I’m just glad to have him back." -- Hodges
• "It will probably be 50-50. I think half will be happy to see me and still love me, and half that hates me, despises me. It is what it is. I'm going to show love, regardless. Anybody who's wearing my jersey, I'll go sign it. It's going to be fun." -- Bell, who expects a lot of Steelers fans at the game and how they will respond to him
THE TEN DATA POINTS
• T.J. Watt is the first player in Steelers history with 13 or more sacks in multiple seasons.
• The Steelers need .5 sacks from Dupree and two from Heyward to have three players reach double digits in sacks for the first time in team history.
• Jets defensive backs have five interceptions. But they have 6.5 sacks, all by safety Jamal Adams.
• The Jets are allowing 3.2 yards per rushing attempt to opposing running backs. The Steelers allow 3.7 yards per attempt to opposing backs.
• New York has given up 82 receptions to opposing running backs on 106 targets. The 82 catches are the seventh-most in the league. The Steelers have allowed 67 running back catches, the ninth fewest.
• The Jets have allowed 19 touchdown passes to wide receivers, the fifth-most in the NFL this season.
• The Jets have given up a league-worst three safeties this season. The Steelers are tied for second with two.
• Since Week 7, the Steelers haven't allowed a team to throw for more than 218 yards.
• Jets placekicker and former Penn State standout Sam Ficken has made just 7 of 13 field goal attempts from 40 yards and beyond.
• Joe Haden has four interceptions this season, giving him 26 since coming into the league in 2010. That is the fourth-most in the league over that period.
FANTASY CORNER
Another week in the money, as Ryan Tannehill, Chris Carson, Allen Robinson, A.J. Brown and, of course, Kenyan Drake all paid off with big games. That was good for 188.66 points to finish in the money. Here's this week's lineup on the Sunday-Monday slate on DraftKings.
Quarterback: Patrick Mahomes ($6,800) -- If the snow in Kansas City didn't slow Mahomes last week, the Bears aren't going to have any luck, either.
Running backs: Joe Mixon ($6,600), DeAndre Washington ($4,000) -- Mixon ran all over the Patriots last week and will do the same to the Dolphins. Washington takes over in Oakland's run-heavy offense. And he's a solid pass catcher.
Wide receivers: Tyler Boyd ($5,800), Terry McLaurin ($6,200), D.K. Metcalf ($5,900) -- Two of the best rookie receivers in McLaurin and Metcalf in great matchups. And, as you can see, I like the Bengals offense against the Dolphins.
Tight end: Hunter Henry ($4,700) -- Henry has had back-to-back quiet weeks. That changes in this one.
Flex: Austin Ekeler ($6,100) -- Melvin Gordon fumbled twice last week. Ekelar should feast against the Raiders.
Defense: Steelers ($3,200) -- We'll go with the Steelers again this week against a turnover-prone Jets team that also allows a lot of sacks.
Dale Lolley (8-6): I initially didn't feel very good about this game. Then I saw the Jets' injury report. And that of the Steelers. The Steelers will have their full offense on the field for the first time in six weeks. And, James Washington and Diontae Johnson got some valuable experience in the meantime. That should pay dividends. New York will be starting its 10th different offensive line combination this season, which isn't good against the Steelers' pass rush. Hodges' play is still the wildcard, but how hard will the Jets play with 11 guys on the injury report? The Steelers also have a big advantage at kicker, where Ficken just can't compete with Chris Boswell. Steelers 20-16
Christopher Carter (6-8): Last week I said the Steelers would win if they could own the trenches. They didn't, and they lost. This week is going to be the same. The Jets don't have the secondary of the Bills, but their third best run defense is formidable because of their strong defensive front. The Steelers need to keep Hodges' passes in the low-to-mid 20s. If they can at least have a respectable ground game, Hodges will have very good chances for splash plays with the full arsenal of receivers. Defensively the Steelers shouldn't struggle with stopping Bell thanks to the Jets' line, and will have a great chance to pressure Darnold and increase his interception count of 12. Steelers 23-14
Hunter Homistek (8-6): I'm faltering down the stretch with my picks ... and I think the Steelers falter in this one, too. It comes down to a few points: The Jets can and will stop the run. The Jets can and will blitz Hodges. Bell can and will impact the game. I know Bell hasn't posted the numbers this year, but his usage has been strange, and I fully expect the Jets to utilize him to the max. On the film I've watched of the Jets, I've seen plenty of flashes of the Bell of old. He's still dangerous. That should help burn the clock, protect the ball and keep Darnold off the ground as much as possible. Jets, 20-13
Matt Sunday (9-5): If there's one thing that can unite a struggling team, it's the ability to play for something. For the Steelers, that's finding a way in, but they've been fighting against the odds to make that happen for the entire season. The Jets are getting a late-season taste of the bittersweet ability to all-but-end a team's year. Couple Bell's determination to make a statement with the fact that the Jets will really want this one and there is still a zero percent chance that Darnold and Bell can do enough against the Steelers' defense to win this one. Steelers 16-10
Dejan Kovacevic (8-6): I'm all about the will in this one. It's December football, and that means something for only one of these teams. The other's banged-up, it's begun questioning its coaching staff, and it'll be playing in front of a home crowd -- at least the portion rooting for the Jets -- that'll be bracing for failure. Add all that up, and it's a bad place to be. The Steelers need to step up, this time on both sides of the ball, and seize the opportunity in front of them. Which they will. Steelers, 25-13
