Game Balls: Five Players That Lifted Steelers to Win over Bucs

The Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 20-18 at Acrisure Stadium on Sunday. Who stood out from the pack as keys to Pittsburgh’s victory? Steelers Now tries to answer that by handing out its five Steelers game balls of the week in Pittsburgh’s upset victory.

Mitch Trubisky

Trubisky had one of the hardest jobs in football to execute today. That was coming off the bench cold as a backup quarterback while nursing a lead. And yet, Trubisky rose to the occasion in just about every sense of the word. Whether it was critical third-down conversions or hard-nosed running, Trubsky brought it to the table to slam the door shut on the Buccaneers in the fourth quarter of the Steelers’ victory.

His fantastic throw to Chase Claypool will be talked about the most, but his hard running to grind out nine yards on a read option and excellent usage of the middle of the field took his game to the next level on Sunday. He was as big of a reason as anybody that Pittsburgh closed the door late.

Chase Claypool

No player more typified the early 2022 Steelers struggles than Chase Claypool, who was moved to a more-natural position in the slot, and with a pair of new quarterbacks, figured to be leaned on even more than he had been in the past, but due to a combination of poor play-calling, poor quarterback and his own below-standard play, had an awful start to the season.

Claypool turned that around in the most dramatic way possible on Sunday, making big catch after big catch, on third downs and in the red zone, finally looking like the big slot receiver the Steelers need.

Larry Ogunjobi

It is hard to not put Larry Ogunjobi on this list as perhaps the defensive MVP. Seriously, Ogunjobi came into the game and dominated it from start to finish. He made a massive tackle for loss on Leonard Fournette that held the Buccaneers back from the goal line and forced a field goal.

Ogunjobi’s six pressures on the day led the team and he was a dominant force that could not be contained. Tampa Bay never quite figured out how to stop the Charlotte product. Even nursing two injuries, Ogunjobi’s first step and vast arsenal of pass rush moves aided him in rattling Tom Brady from the outset of the game.

James Pierre

The Steelers trotted out a no-name secondary on Sunday outside of Terrell Edmunds, but make no mistake, it was James Pierre who was the biggest winner of the day of that group. Tasked with being the top cornerback and having to deal with Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, Pierre stifled his opponents for most of the game. Any lapses that he experienced were mostly at the catch point, and were not detrimental to the team’s efforts.

He was willing in the run game and made a number of great plays in tight coverage. It was a game where Pittsburgh badly needed someone to step up and be the reliable guy on the outside. Pierre proved he could be that guy on Sunday, much to the delight of Mike Tomlin.

Devin Bush

Devin Bush gets a lot of hate from the Steelers fans for his lack of ability in stopping the run, and while some of it is certainly deserved, a lot of it is also unfair. The Steelers didn’t draft a 230-pound inside linebacker with the idea that he was going to shed blocks from guards and be a run-stopping demon.

What they did expect was Bush to be able to use his speed as pass coverage specialist. So far, he’s largely failed to live up to that standard, which is a far more appropriate one to hold him to. But he came up with an enormous play on Sunday, knocking the ball away from All-Pro wide receiver Chris Godwin on a 2-point conversion attempt to seal the victory.