Weather, Steelers can’t stop Cardinals

PITTSBURGH — James Conner ran for 105 yards and a pair of touchdowns against his old team as the Cardinals beat the Steelers, 24-10, on Sunday for the franchise’s first win at Pittsburgh since 1969.

Arizona (3-10) took control late in the first half with a 99-yard touchdown drive that ended with a 5-yard strike from Kyler Murray to Trey McBride. The Cardinals led the rest of the way, enduring a pair of lengthy delays due to severe weather.

Pittsburgh (7-5) saw all the progress shown by its offense a week earlier in a win over Cincinnati vanish. The Steelers lost starting quarterback Kenny Pickett to an ankle injury late in the first half and scored their only touchdown in garbage time.

Pickett wore a boot on his right foot during the second half while backup Mitch Trubisky took over and struggled to do much of anything as the Steelers let a chance to strengthen their position in the AFC playoff race slip away.

There is no postseason in the offing for rebuilding Arizona, but the Cardinals showed some fight while improving to 2-2 since Murray’s return from a torn ACL in his right knee.

Murray completed 13 of 23 passes for 145 yards and ran for 19 yards. Arizona’s defense bounced back from a nightmarish showing against the Rams a week ago in which it was lit up for 37 points and 452 yards.

Officials extended halftime for more than 30 minutes as a round of storms swept through. The teams returned briefly, long enough for Steelers center Mason Cole to butcher a snap to Trubisky. The Cardinals fell on it and, eight plays later, Conner — a star at the University of Pittsburgh who then spent four seasons with the Steelers from 2017-20 — bulled over from a yard out to make it 17-3.

The game was paused again — this time for 53 minutes — but there was no spark from Pittsburgh as the Steelers entered a short week with plenty of questions to answer on offense.