USA TODAY International Edition
Steelers stay undefeated after holding back Titans
Tennessee fought back facing a 20- point deficit, but Pittsburgh ended up walking away as the last undefeated team in the AFC.
The CBS broadcast of Sunday’s Steelers- Titans game caught Ben Roethlisberger as he watched Tennessee kicker Stephen Gostkowski’s 45- yard field goal attempt start straight, fade right and finally miss.
Roethlisberger looked incredulous. “He missed it?” the Pittsburgh quarterback mouthed before a grin spread across his face.
That level of surprise indicates Roethlisberger hasn’t been following this improbable Titans season closely.
Missed kicks aren’t new. Neither are third- down struggles. Both were featured prominently in the Titans’ 27- 24 loss Sunday at Nissan Stadium.
The Titans ( 5- 1) entered last in thirddown defense and further cemented their place there by allowing the Steelers to convert 13 of 18 third- down tries.
Gostkowski missed his sixth kick in 16 tries. “I had an opportunity to tie the game up,” he said. “I felt pretty good all game, and came out there and it went right down the middle and faded to the right. ... Just very disappointed to let the team down like that. I was confident going out there but didn’t get it done. Just not very good right now.”
There also were new wrinkles. They included some crucial errors late – as opposed to late- game magic. Special teams gaffes – as opposed to mostly solid play from the unit. And an early deficit – as opposed to early dominance.
The Titans allowed the Steelers to put together a 16- play drive on their opening possession that was capped by a touchdown, the first points allowed by Tennessee on an opposing team’s first drive this season.
Early in the second quarter, they allowed another long drive to end in a TD to put themselves in a 14- 0 hole.
“We played a terrible first half,” Titans safety Kevin Byard said.
Said Titans coach Mike Vrabel: “You can’t fall behind against a good football team. Give Pittsburgh a lot of credit.
This was clearly the best team we’ve played to this point, and if we didn’t play our best, we were going to lose.”
The Titans also had miscues on special teams, including allowing a long punt return by Ray- Ray McCloud and a muffed kickoff by Kalif Raymond. They were, in Vrabel’s word, “uncharacteristic.”
“We weren’t very good in all three phases,” Vrabel said. “Special teams, too many mistakes.”
Then there was an intentional grounding call against Ryan Tannehill with less than a minute to play. It thwarted the Titans’ chances of going in for a go- ahead TD and pushed back Gostkowski’s field goal attempt.
Tannehill said he thought the pass was thrown close enough to Corey Davis that it wouldn’t yield a flag and said watching Gostkowski’s kick sail right was a “gut punch.”
“But there’s a lot I can do better, we can do better, during game so we are not in that situation at the end,” Tannehill said.