The Pittsburgh Steelers know their margin for error is impossibly thin. They know no other way.
The tighter the finish, the more the team they believe they can be — a team that rarely, if ever, shows itself for four quarters — emerges.
“You can't get nervous,” running back Jaylen Warren said. “We're not ones to fold. When the pressure builds, we love it. We love it.”
Sure looks like it.
Kenny Pickett threw a 3-yard touchdown pass to Diontae Johnson with 4:02 to go and Pittsburgh's defense turned away Tennessee rookie quarterback Will Levis twice in the final minutes as the Steelers rallied for a 20-16 victory on Thursday night.
Pittsburgh (5-3) bounced back from a dismal loss to Jacksonville on Sunday by doing what it has done so well for so long: hanging around long enough to pull it out in the end.
Four of Pittsburgh's five wins this season have come in games they trailed entering the fourth quarter. All five of Pittsburgh's victories have come by eight points or less.
“The fact that we continue to find ways to win, I think is a huge advantage to us,” said Pickett, who threw for 190 yards and the winning score while playing with aching ribs. “No one panics down the stretch. We all are confident in each other.”
Pickett struggled at times while completing 19 of 30 but found Johnson for 32 yards down the sideline on the go-ahead drive then hit him again on a little out to Johnson just beyond the goal line for the receiver's first touchdown reception since Jan. 3, 2022, a span of 23 games.
“It was a big deal to get him in the end zone,” Pickett said. “It’s been too long for sure.”
Johnson finished with seven receptions for 90 yards. Warren added 112 total yards — including a burst over the right side for 22 yards on the winning drive. Najee Harris had 76 total yards and a touchdown as the Steelers continued a startling trend. Pittsburgh is the 29th team since 1970 to be outgained in each of its first eight games and the only one to have a winning record in spite of it.
“Obviously we're not satisfied with where we are,” Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt said. “We just need to continue to improve and eliminate problems as quickly as possible.”
Levis played well in his second NFL start but couldn't match the electricity of his first, a four-touchdown masterpiece against Atlanta. Levis threw for 262 yards but his 39th and final pass ended up being the first interception of his career when Steelers linebacker Kwon Alexander picked off a pass at the goal line with 6 seconds remaining to seal it.
“It’s so hard to win games and you have an opportunity like that to win it at the end and it doesn’t happen, it makes you feel a whole lot worse,” Levis said. “Credit to them. they made the plays when they needed to and we didn’t.”
