While both the Pittsburgh Steelers and New England Patriots didn't have their best offensive showing during this afternoon's game at Acrisure Stadium, it would be the visiting Pats who would eventually get the upper hand and give the Steelers their first loss of 2022.
Pats quarterback Mac Jones enjoyed a decently productive afternoon, finishing 21-of-35 passing for 252 yards with a touchdown and an interception en route to New England's 13th victory over Pittsburgh in 17 meetings under coach Bill Belichick.
Afterward, head coach Mike Tomlin lamented the sluggish offense.
"I'm not sure if we had that perspective," Tomlin said. "We just want to win possession downs. And I was really up front about that at the outset of the week. We knew it would be a possession down game and we won some of those, but not enough splash, particularly in the waning moments."
It was a bizarre sequence that gave the Patriots life, as what should have been an easy interception for Pittsburgh's Cameron Sutton on third-and-nine was dropped. Soon after, punter Gunner Olszewski miffed his attempt, allowing the Pats to recover and led directly to a touchdown courtesy of Damien Harris.
"I thought those were the critical weighty things where they were able to control the game, particularly in the fourth quarter as we were trying to regain control of it," he continued. "They got propped up by those plays and we didn't do what was required. We didn't make the significant chunks or move the ball enough on offense. At the end we didn't get the necessary stop on defense."
After scoring a touchdown and subsequent two-point conversion, the Steelers weren't able to cut their deficit any closer, as the Pats defense held them to two straight three and outs.
Quarterback Mitchell Trubisky, making his second straight start, finished 21-of-33 for 168 yards with a touchdown and an interception.
"It's important we zero our focus in on this short week," said Tomlin. "There's some things to learn from this performance, but we better learn quickly and shift our focus because we have a road division game here in a short period of time."
