PITTSBURGH — For the third straight game, it was not always pretty, but for the third straight game, the Pittsburgh Steelers left with a victory, mucking it up with the Los Angeles Chargers in a defense-filled affair, but coming away with a 20-10 win.
With Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert nursing an injured ankle and the Steelers without two starting offensive linemen due to injury, both teams seemed content to try to run the ball and not take many risks offensively.
That plan played out through three quarters, with both teams keeping things close to the vest. The teams traded scores and traded turnovers, keeping things at a 10-10 deadlock into the fourth quarter.
Pittsburgh pulled ahead in the fourth quarter with a long drive that was aided by multiple Chargers penalties. It stalled in the red zone, but Chris Boswell’s third field goal of the day made it 13-10 Steelers, giving the home team the lead for good.
Then the Chargers started to press, and that did no go well. Elandon Roberts sacked Hebert on a blitzing, knocking the already injured quarterback out of the game. That forced a punt, and the Steelers capitalized with a long drive that finished with Justin Fields hitting Calvin Austin III for a 55-yard, game-breaking touchdown.
Fields finished 25 of 32 for 245 yards. He threw his first interception of the season, but had the one passing touchdown, and the first Steelers touchdown came in the second quarter, when Fields scampered off the left side untouched from five yards out.
With the Steelers up two scores, backup Taylor Heinicke tried to lead the Chargers back, but was sacked by Nick Herbig and Cam Heyward and punted the ball back to the Steelers.
Then Najee Harris went to work. Despite the obvious rushing situation, he and Cordarrelle Patterson took turns battering the Chargers defense, taking the team all the way down the 1-yard line before the Steelers could run out the clock with a kneel down. Harris finished with 70 yards on 18 carries, and Patterson added 33 on four rushes.
The Steelers gained 346 yards as a team, but 203 of them came on the final three drives of the game.
The Pittsburgh defense, on the other hand, continued its dominance, holding the Chargers to 168 yards, 10 total first downs, and no points in the second half. The Steelers sacked Herbert and Heinicke a combined five times.
The Steelers, now 3-0, will head back on the road for Week 4, visiting the Indianapolis Colts.