The Pittsburgh Steelers played in their second preseason game of 2022, and the Steelers won the game. Beyond the final score, how did the Steelers fare in their second game of the preseason?
The Steelers opened the game with a practice that ended with a field goal attempt. Chris Boswell missed the field goal, his first attempt of the season. In his two starts this preseason, Mitchell Trubisky has led the Steelers to a scoring opportunity. Unlike his first game, Trubisky didn’t throw for a touchdown in this game, but the Steelers’ other two quarterbacks did. The Steelers passing game was good again, with the Steelers throwing for 255 yards on 28/36 passes with two touchdowns and no interceptions.
While the Steelers’ yards per pass attempt were a respectable 6.9 yards per pass, the Steelers’ rush game was the polar opposite of the previous week, following their 185 yards on 27 carries since the first pregame. -season with a horrible 24 yards on 14 carries. It was even worse as the three Steelers running backs who ran the ball more than once combined to gain 2 yards on 8 carries, while 21 of the Steelers’ 24 yards came from a scramble from Mitchell Trubisky and of a run from catcher Steven Sims.
The Steelers failed to score 20 points and gave up a safety. It was not a good outing overall.
Roll of honor: Kenny Pickett, Pat Freiermuth, Mason Cole
Demerits: The entire running game, plus pass protection.
Final grade: D
The Steelers defense has done a much better job of stopping the run this week, although Tyson Alualu got off to a rocky start in his first preseason action and Cameron Heyward and Alex Highsmith, two of the Steelers’ top defensemen, haven’t played. Devin Bush played a bit better this week (not exactly high praise), TJ Watt and Minkah Fitzpatrick both played some snaps and made an impact, while Myles Jack continued his good game and Larry Ogunjobi had looks pretty good in limited action.
The Jaguars scored 15 points, but with two of those coming from a safety, the Steelers defense gave up only 13 points. With 10 trips for the Jaguars, this represents 1.3 points per trip. The biggest complaint I can make about the defense is the Jaguars’ ability to move the ball when Trevor Lawrence was playing. The Steelers managed to keep the young Jaguars star out of the end zone, but the Jaguars offense rushed for 153 yards in the three drives. Lawrence was the quarterback, that’s the movement of the ball. Although to be honest, watching Trevor Lawrence distinguish base zone defense with zone-beater routes isn’t something that translates well to the regular season.
Roll of honor: Mark Robinson, DeMarvin Leal, Damontae Kaze
Demerits: Vanilla diagrams.
Final grade: B
Chris Boswell missed his first kick of the year, a 53-yard attempt in the first quarter. Pressley Harvin III did a good job clearing, averaging 44 yards for his 4 punts, including one that was downed inside the 20-yard line. With just 14 return yards and no touchdowns, the Steelers punt play was on point and a big part of keeping the Jaguars just 15 points into the game.
The Steelers had two good kick returns while the Jaguars had none, so overall the special teams were very good aside from a missed kick.
Roll of honor: Pressley Harvin III, Benny Snell
Demerits: Miss by Chris Boswell.
Final grade: B
The bad was the racing game, and that hurts the overall rating a bit. But the Steelers left the game about as healthy as they came into it, and that matters more than the final preseason score. The offensive line needs to improve and apart from that there is not much to complain about.
Final grade: B
Now it’s up to you to tell us what you think. Vote your rating for the Steelers’ overall performance and let us know your thoughts in the comments below.