PITTSBURGH — The Steelers' unbeaten season came to a surprising and sudden end when they blew an 11-point second-half lead and lost to the Washington Football Team, 23-17, at Heinz Field.
It was the second lackluster performance in a row for the Steelers offense, which managed only a field goal in the second half. And it was a second-half breakdown by the defense, which allowed Washington to score 20 points after halftime, including the deciding 45-yard field goal by Dustin Hopkins with 2:04 remaining.
Fittingly, the Steelers attempt to mount a final comeback drive ended on the first play when Ben Roethlisberger's short pass was tipped at the line of scrimmage by Montez Sweat and intercepted by former Steelers linebacker Jon Bostic.
The loss dropped the Steelers to 11-1 and shrunk their first-place lead in the AFC North to two games on the Cleveland Browns. Washington improved to 5-7 to remain tied for first place with the New York Giants in the NFC East.
The Steelers rushed for a season-low 21 yards on 14 carries, the fourth time in the past six games they have failed to rush for more than 48 yards. The offense was so inept that the Steelers had 11 plays of zero or negative yards, eight of them running plays.
The Steelers sacked quarterback Alex Smith three times, tying the NFL record for consecutive games with at least one sack (69). But Smith completed 31 of 46 passes for 296 yards — 174 in the second half — and was not intercepted. He also had four completions of at least 29 yards against a secondary that was playing without cornerback Steve Nelson and lost cornerback Joe Haden in the fourth quarter with a possible concussion.
Roethlisberger completed 33 of a season-high 53 attempts for 305 yards and two touchdowns, but he was victimized again by at least five drops, three by tight end Eric Ebron.
Washington came back from a 14-3 halftime deficit to tie the game at 17-17 on a 15-yard touchdown from Smith to tight end Logan Thomas with 9:09 remaining in the fourth quarter. Smith went right at cornerback Justin Layne, who was in the game after Haden went to the locker room with a possible concussion five plays earlier.
The Steelers were without four starters — center Maurkice Pouncey (COVID-19), running back James Conner (COVID-19 list), cornerback Steve Nelson (knee) and kicker Chris Boswell (hip) — while also playing their first game without linebacker Bud Dupree, who tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee and will miss the remainder of the season.
After a lackluster first quarter that was a carry-over from the dreadful performance against the Ravens, the Steelers got a couple of touchdown passes from Roethlisberger in the second quarter to take a 14-3 halftime lead.
And it might have been a bigger margin if the Steelers didn't get stopped five times from the Washington 1 — three times on running plays and another time on a clumsy tackle-eligible pass to Jerald Hawkins.
That, though, was symptomatic of the way the offense was performing for most of the first half. The Steelers had nine plays for zero or negative yards in the first half — six on run plays, three on passes.
However, they quickly recovered from that horrid sequence to come right back on the very next series.
That's when James Washington, who caught a short pass from Roethlisberger at the Washington 43, shook off tackles by cornerback Kendall Fuller and Deshazor Everett, and ran untouched the rest of the way for a 50-yard touchdown and a 14-0 lead.
The Steelers had taken a 7-0 lead on Roethlisberger's 3-yard touchdown to receiver Diontae Johnson early in the second quarter, capping a 14-play, 72-yard drive in which Roethlisberger converted a pair of third-and-long plays with a 17-yard pass to Johnson and a 15-yard pass to Ebron.
The defense finally allowed a score when Dustin Hopkins kicked a 49-yard field goal right before halftime, but Washington managed just 114 yards of offense and failed to convert a third down (0 for 8) in the first half.
Washington, though, took the opening kickoff in the second half and quickly went 82 yards in 14 plays to cut the deficit to 14-10 on a 1-yard run by Peyton Barber — one play after the Steelers appeared to stop Washington on four plays at the 1. But a holding penalty against linebacker T.J. Watt gave them new life and the Steelers paid for the mistake.
The touchdown was set up with completions of 31-yards to wide receiver Cam Sims on third and 14 and a 30-yard pass to Thomas over cornerback Cam Sutton to the Steelers' 1.
The Steelers gave themselves a little more of a cushion when kicker Matthew Wright, filling in for Boswell, kicked a 37-yard field goal on the first play of the fourth quarter to make it 17-10.
