Lolley: Haden, Watt, defense take this one by storm

Joe Haden pulled a Nuke LaLoosh Sunday for the Steelers.

He announced his presence with authority.

Haden's return after missing the past month with a sprained foot came none too soon. The veteran cornerback recovered a fumble and made a game-saving tackle on fourth down in the red zone as the Steelers rallied behind their defense to stay alive in the AFC playoff race, beating the Titans, 19-13, here at Heinz Field.

"He's 'Joe Money.' He just brings a little bit of swagger and some mojo with him, and I think that rubs off on all of us," said Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt. "He's just a vet, and he makes a lot of those smart veteran plays, and a lot of that rubs off on the other guys, as well."

That he does. And he made a couple of them in this game as the Steelers improved to 7-6-1 by forcing a season-high four turnovers, three of which came in the second half to help mitigate the Titans (9-5) rushing for 201 yards on 42 carries.

"It's not just his playmaking," Mike Tomlin said of the 32-year-old Haden. "It's the presence he brings. He's got leadership skills. He's got great experience. He smiles in the face of adversity. That's contagious. There were some tangible and intangible qualities to his game today."

None of those was more apparent than this stop on Tennessee wide receiver Nick Westbrook-Ikhine on fourth-and-7 at the Pittsburgh 10 with less than 30 seconds to play:

Officials initially ruled Westbrook-Ikhine had gotten the necessary yardage and the Titans quickly ran to the line of scrimmage to run their next play, much to the chagrin of the Steelers.

"It just wasn't even close to begin with," Cam Heyward said of the initial spot, which placed the ball inside the 10. "It was a yard short. They got a generous spot to begin with. I knew it was short to begin with. And then they were trying to hurry up to the ball so they couldn't even look at it. I'm, like, it's under two minutes. We have to look at it. And I was just annoyed that it was even going to that because it was clearly short."

Haden knew he had the stop short of the line to gain.

"I had my heels on the first-down marker, so I was just sliding inside," said Haden, noting the Steelers were in man-to-man coverage. "When he threw it to him, I just knew if I tackled him and made him go backwards instead of forward, there was no way he was going to be able to get the first down."

The initial measurement had the ball right at the first-down marker. But after replay officials reviewed the play, it was marked short of the 10, turning the ball over to the Steelers on downs and touching off a celebration by the defense and the crowd of 59,521.

It wasn't a perfect win by any stretch. The Steelers were once again ineffective at stopping the run. And the Titans converted five of their first seven third downs before finishing 8 of 18. But it was enough to get the win -- largely because the defense forced four turnovers for the first time since Nov. 22, 2020 in a 27-3 win over the Jaguars.

This win wasn't nearly as convincing because, try as it might, the offense did little to take advantage of the miscues.

Both touchdowns in this game came on quarterback sneaks -- one each by Ben Roethlisberger and his counterpart Ryan Tannehill. And the Steelers turned Tennessee's four turnovers into points, albeit with four Chris Boswell field goals, including three in the fourth quarter.

The Steelers trailed 13-3 at the half as the Titans won the field position game in the first 30 minutes. But the defense got stops on Tennessee's first two possessions of the second half and the offense put together its first -- and really only -- sustained drive of the game, going 63 yards as Roethlisberger scored on the team's third attempt to punch the ball into the end zone from the 1 to cut the lead to 13-10.

Then, the turnovers started to happen -- in bunches.

On third-and-6, Tannehill was pressured and dumped a short crossing pass to Racey McMath and Cameron Sutton came up to tackle him. As McMath spun away from Sutton, the ball popped out of his hands and into the air. Haden, who had been covering McMath, dove and caught the ball out of the air for a turnover:

"I was hoping for an interception," said Haden. "Just a good play by Cam to get the ball out."

The Steelers took possession at the Tennessee 41, but stalled at the Titans' 10, setting for a 28-yard Boswell field goal and a 13-13 tie with 13:24 remaining in the game.

The Titans were on the move on their next possession, but backup outside linebacker Taco Charlton leaped to tip a Tannehill pass at the line of scrimmage and Joe Schobert plucked it out of the air and returned the ball to the Tennessee 31:

"Once we got some points on the board and we started getting turnovers on consecutive drives on defense, you could really feel the overall momentum in the whole stadium, the atmosphere change," said Schobert. "It was huge for us, and we kept riding that wave right until the end."

The offense again went three-and-out, but added a field goal that gave the Steelers their first lead at 16-13. Then, on the ensuing possession, with the crowd now reaching a fever pitch, Tannehill mishandled a center exchange and Watt swooped in to come out of a pile of players with the ball, setting up another Boswell field goal.

Together, the turnovers looked like this, with three coming on third downs:

That's what the Steelers defense was built to do, create splash plays. But for much of this season, that hasn't been there. After forcing multiple turnovers in 11 games in 2020 -- they went 10-1 in those contests -- Sunday's game marked just the third time this season the Steelers have managed more than one. It was also the first time this season the Steelers have forced more than two.

And it helped offset a day when the offense managed just 12 first downs as the Titans outgained the Steelers 318-168 and held a 39:08-20:52 advantage in time of possession.

"Splash plays are always an equalizer," said Heyward, who had one of the Steelers' four sacks. "How many turnovers did we get, four? Man, they actually came at crucial times and got us back in the game, gave us the lead. We've been saying the dam is going to break."

And break it did.

Now, we'll see if it is soon enough to keep the Steelers in the playoff race for the long term. At least for this day, it was. The Ravens' loss to the Packers leaves them at 8-6 going into the final three weeks of the regular season, a half-game ahead of the Steelers. The Bengals defeated the Broncos in Denver Sunday to get to 8-6, to also stay a half-game ahead of the Steelers. The Browns (7-6) host the Raiders at 5 p.m. Monday.

For the Steelers, who travel to Kansas City to face the Chiefs next weekend before finishing up with games against the Browns and Ravens, the path to the playoffs is a simple one. Keep winning and things will take care of themselves.

"We won this one," said Tomlin. "We're getting singularly focused on the next one. We're not diagnosing big pictures. No need to. We take care of business in the stadium, we don't need to look around. We have three AFC games left, two of which are AFC North games. So, all we have to do is focus on the stadiums we're in."

• The rushing defense, while allowing 201 yards on 42 carries, wasn't bad for most of this game. The Steelers allowed 3.4 yards per carry on 18 attempts in the first half -- keeping them in the game.

The Titans got more in the second half, but it didn't lead to a single point.

"I'm still ticked about it," said Heyward of the Steelers allowing 200 rushing yards for the second game in a row. "I never want to surrender that many yards. There's a lot we've got to clean up. But it's better to clean it up after a win than a loss."

In the second half, all the Titans had was their running game. Tannehill completed 9 of 12 passes in the final two quarters, but for only 32 yards.

If an opposing offense wants to make itself one-dimensional, fine. That was the problem the Titans had, even when they held the Steelers to field goals in the fourth quarter.

Running the ball that much allows your opponent to stay in the game -- especially when you're not breaking off long runs.

The Titans got the ball back with 4:29 remaining at their own 25 down 19-13. And ran the ball seven consecutive times. In today's NFL.

By the time they hit the two-minute warning, they were at the Pittsburgh 32, but it was going to be awfully hard to run the ball into the end zone from there. The Steelers had to honor the pass before that instead of simply playing the run. And the Titans ran the ball again coming out of the two-minute warning, but then had to throw the ball on four of their five final plays.

Those went for a 4-yard gain, a sack, an 8-yard completion and then the fourth-down stop by Haden. Tennessee's passing game was largely a non-factor.

So, in reality, the bottom line is that the Steelers allowed 13 points and 318 total yards. The Titans had 117 net passing yards. It's no different, really, than if the Titans had thrown for 201 yards and rushed for 117. The bottom line is that it was not an effective offense. They averaged 4.1 yards per play and turned the ball over four times.

• The Steelers averaged 3.7 yards per play, which is horrible. The running game went nowhere, not that anyone expected it to be a major factor.

What I don't get, however, is why the Steelers didn't take a shot after their turnovers, especially the two in the fourth quarter.

They took over at the Tennessee 31 and 35 after Schobert's interception and the Tannehill fumble, respectively.

That's a great time to dial up something for a quick strike. And yet Matt Canada stayed conservative.

Now, perhaps he feared his line wouldn't be able to block up the Titans and a sack would take the Steelers out of field goal range, but run a couple of deeper routes and have Najee Harris available as an outlet for a check down.

• The Steelers are going to have to do more than kick field goals next weekend against the Chiefs. But the Chiefs also aren't going to run the ball 40-plus times against them.

That's just not going to happen.

Andy Reid will do what Andy Reid does -- and that's call passing plays.

But the Steelers are going to have to open up their offense. Perhaps they'll get Kevin Dotson back. He's eligible to return to practice while recovering from his high ankle sprain.

I saw Dotson last week and he was still a little hampered. But he has to be getting close. And with three weeks left in the season, there's no reason not to at least start the clock on the three-week window he has to be activated. After all, at that point, they will either be in the postseason when his time is up, or they'll be done.

Getting Dotson back would certainly help the running game.

• Minkah Fitzpatrick and Terrell Edmunds were outstanding.

You ideally don't want your safeties leading the team in tackles, but Fitzpatrick had 14 and Edmunds had 10.

Edmunds, who spent a good amount of time in the box, also had two tackles for a loss, half of what the Steelers had in this game.

Much-maligned Devin Bush was actually attacking downhill more in this game, as well. At least he's now moving forward and attacking the line of scrimmage at the snap instead of waiting for an offensive lineman to fire out at him. It's much tougher for opposing offensive linemen to hit a moving target.

At least it's a start for Bush, who had five tackles and a pass defense in this game.

• Rookie center Kendrick Green seems to have solved the shotgun snap issues he was having. They had continued into practice early this week, but if you watched them in this game, he eased up on the speed with which he was sending the ball to the quarterback on his deep snaps.

It made them much easier to handle for Roethlisberger. And they were actually all on target.

Now, about that blocking ...

• Tomlin was taking a lot of heat on social media for not using his timeouts when the Titans had the ball in the closing moments of the first half.

Tennessee wound up kicking a field goal after a sack with 21 seconds remaining. That play began with 32 seconds left. The play before that was a pass on second-and-9 with 1:14 remaining.

"I was more concerned with stopping them than I was with creating a drive opportunity for us," Tomlin said. "I wanted them to make decisions on going from second down to third down on time unless they burned one of their timeouts. They chose not to, so the clock ran. We can get excited about subsequent drives, but you've got to get a stop first. And I didn't take that for granted."

I probably would have called a timeout, but it was third-and-goal from the 4. To Tomlin's point, the Titans, who had timeouts remaining, would have had a chance to dial up a better play than the one they did, which resulted in a 10-yard sack by Heyward and Watt.

Now, the Steelers wound up having 12 seconds remaining following an 18-yard return by Ray-Ray McCloud of a short kickoff designed to burn time off the clock. That allowed Roethlisberger to throw two passes to Pat Freiermuth and a third to James Washington that put the ball at the Tennessee 38. That set up a 56-yard field goal attempt by Boswell that he left just short.

But there's no guarantee the Steelers would have gotten any closer had they used a timeout earlier.

To that point, Roethlisberger was 6 of 12 for 52 yards. And the Titans would have played things a little differently with more time remaining, as well.

It's easy to second-guess such things. And again, I would have used a timeout. But that wound up being a 19-play, 64-yard drive for the Titans that resulted in three points.

• If I were Tomlin, I'd be much more concerned with the performance of rookie punter Pressley Harvin. Every time he is asked to kick the ball out of his own end, he shanks the ball.

At this point, the Steelers should come up with an injury of some kind for Harvin so that they can place him on injured reserve and sign a replacement.

Bring him back next year with viable competition. Hoping that he gets over the issues he's having isn't a plan. Harvin very nearly cost the Steelers this game.

• The Titans were intent on not allowing Diontae Johnson to beat them. They rolled a safety to him nearly every play. Still, Johnson caught all five of his targets for 38 yards and also had a 10-yard run on an end around.

The reception yardage put him over 1,000 yards for the season.

"He's a playmaker," said Roethlisberger. "He's a guy that teams need to keep an eye on because he'll hurt you if you don't. And I'm kicking myself because he had a touchdown late in the game. I threw it to James (Washington), got the first down. But I missed Diontae."

If Johnson is going to draw that kind of attention, the other receivers have to make plays. Washington had three catches for 36 yards, but Chase Claypool failed to catch either of his targets, while McCloud had one catch, which he then flipped to Claypool for a 12-yard gain.

So, on five targets, Claypool and McCloud produced one catch for 12 yards. That's not good enough.

• Watt was credited with a sack and a half in this game, giving him 17 1/2.

That moved him past James Harrison, who had 16 in 2008, for the most in a single season in team history.

Watt has three games remaining to get to the NFL record of 22.5, so he has a shot.

But just as important in this game was that the Steelers got contributions from their other outside linebackers. Derek Tuszka had a strip sack in the final minute that cost the Titans eight yards on a second-and-7 from the Pittsburgh 16. Charlton had the tipped pass that was intercepted by Schobert.

In fact, only Alex Highsmith was a disappointment in this game. All too often, he was sealed to the inside or outside by Taylor Lewan.

Now, Lewan is good. But he isn't what he used to be. Highsmith had four tackles and a quarterback hit. He also drew a holding penalty on Lewan, so he did make a bit of an impact.

But the Steelers need more from all of their outside linebackers not named Watt. And first and foremost on that list is more from Highsmith, who has just three sacks this season.

THE ESSENTIALS

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THE INJURIES

• Pat Freiermuth, tight end, was hit in the head in the third quarter, down for a brief spell, then taken to the locker room for concussion protocol, then rule out early in the fourth

• Chris Wormley, defensive end, injured his groin in the third quarter and didn't return

• T.J. Watt, outside linebacker, returned to the lineup after reinjuring his groin in Minneapolis

• Alex Highsmith, outside linebacker, returned after injuring his knee in Minneapolis

• Joe Haden, cornerback, returned after missing a month to a sprained mid-foot

• Robert Spillane, inside linebacker, returned after missing two games with a knee injury

• Kevin Rader, tight end, was inactive with a hip injury

• Buddy Johnson, inside linebacker, was inactive with a foot injury

• Isaiah Buggs, defensive end, was inactive with an ankle injury

THE AFC NORTH

• Baltimore
• Cincinnati
• Cleveland

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