PITTSBURGH — A controversial taunting call, a game-changing special teams gaffe and an edge-of-your-seat finish. What more could you want from “Monday Night Football”?
The Steelers overcame a dreadful second-half effort and did just enough to squeak past a reeling Bears team, 29-27, at Heinz Field. They’re 5-3 now, second place in the AFC North, but their fourth consecutive victory wasn’t exactly encouraging. The defense broke when it could least afford to, with late-game lapses that are becoming all-too-common for an elite unit.
Chicago will slide to 3-6 even as Steelers and Bears fans everywhere collectively wonder what just happened. Rookie quarterback Justin Fields nearly out-dueled Ben Roethlisberger, throwing for 291 yards on 17-of-29 passing while adding 45 yards rushing. Fields didn’t have a touchdown until his 16-yard go-ahead strike to Darnell Mooney in the back left corner of the end zone with 1:46 left. Roethlisberger tossed two touchdowns and led the Steelers to a fourth-quarter comeback drive capped by Chris Boswell’s 40-yard field goal with 26 seconds left. More on him shortly...
It was over when: The defense redeemed itself ever so slightly in the waning moments, holding Fields and the Bears offense out of realistic field-goal range on their last possession. Chicago did try a 65-yard field goal by Cairo Santos with only two seconds left, but it wasn’t even close, and the Steelers escaped.
Player of the game: Chris Boswell. It would’ve been difficult to have a worse week than he had in Cleveland, but Monday night brought a two-play stretch he won’t soon forget. Boswell kicked a 54-yard field goal, then recovered a fumble on back-to-back plays in the fourth quarter. Yes, if you’re looking back at this 20 years from now, you read that correctly. Tomlin opted to let Boswell — who had missed an extra point on his previous kick — try a long one, and the always-reliable veteran delivered to get it back to a two-score game. On the ensuing kickoff, cornerback James Pierre got his helmet on the ball and knocked it free from returner Jakeem Grant. The fumbled bounced right to Boswell, who slid to pick it up and withstood a hard hit from tight end Jesper Horsted, one week after he had to leave the Browns win with a concussion. Just for good measure, Boswell added a 52-yard field goal to make it 26-20 with less than three minutes left before his final nail in the Bears’ coffin.
Trending up: Pat Freiermuth. If first-round pick Najee Harris isn’t the best option on the Steelers offense, it’s the second-round pick. Freiermuth caught a ho-hum 4-yard touchdown in the first quarter, then doubled down with a fantastic 10-yard score late in the third. Ben Roethlisberger saw Freiermuth matched up with struggling Bears cornerback Kindle Vildor, who went flailing like a rag doll as Freiermuth bodied him in the back right corner of the end zone for the first multi-score game of his NFL career and third touchdown in two weeks. Freiermuth finished with just five catches for 43 yards on five targets, but he turned in one of the biggest plays of the game on a night that legendary Steelers tight end Heath Miller was watching from the sideline.
Trending down: Chase Claypool. He got off to a fast start, leaping to catch a 26-yard pass on the Steelers’ opening drive, but cooled off considerably. Claypool had just three catches for 30 yards, his third consecutive game under five catches and 45 yards. He was hobbled at times and has dealt with a nagging hamstring injury for about a month now, but if he’s healthy, Claypool needs to start providing more to this offense.
Up next: Another home matchup with a struggling NFC North team, this time the Detroit Lions, the league’s only remaining winless team at 0-8. At least first-year coach Dan Campbell and his team had the week off to get ready for this one.
