Steelers vs. Jaguars: Full Report Card Grades for Pittsburgh
For once, the Pittsburgh Steelers got the job done against an inferior opponent, beating the winless Jacksonville Jaguars 17-9 Sunday at EverBank Field.
The Steelers' performance left a lot to be desired. Their offense seemed stuck in the mud at times, and they struggled to defeat a team that was beaten by an average of 23.5 points in its first four games.
Michael Palmer and Brice McCain, two players most people needed a numerical roster to identify, saved the day for the Steelers.
Palmer, a backup tight end, scored on a one-yard touchdown pass from Ben Roethlisberger to give the Steelers a 10-3 lead in the second quarter. The Steelers wouldn't relinquish that lead, although it did shrink to one point on two Josh Scobee field goals.
That's when McCain, a reserve cornerback, stepped in front of Jaguars receiver Allen Hurns and returned a Blake Bortles interception 22 yards for a touchdown to increase the Steelers' lead to 17-9 with 11:32 left in the game.
The Jaguars didn't get the ball past their own 40 the rest of the way.
The Steelers (3-2) will take the win, but their relatively slim margin of victory over the 0-5 Jaguars should keep them from getting too comfortable. This supposedly easy leg of their schedule hasn't turned out that way.
Next week the Steelers are at Cleveland. Just like they did at Pittsburgh in Week 1, the Browns came back from a huge deficit Sunday. This time, however, they won. They were down 25 at Tennessee and prevailed 29-28.
No one needed to tell the Steelers that no lead is safe against the Browns. They need to keep that in mind next week.
Quarterback
1 of 10
Ben Roethlisberger has gone three straight games without throwing an interception.
He did, however, lose a fumble for the second straight game. He coughed up the ball after being sacked by Abry Jones in the red zone in the fourth quarter with the Steelers trying to add to a 10-9 lead.
Roethlisberger was sacked four times, although he did a decent job escaping some sacks. He completed 26 of 36 passes, including his last 10 in a row, for 273 yards and a touchdown.
Unlike last week, there were no obvious overthrows. Roethlisberger completed passes to 11 different players.
Grade: B+
Running Backs
2 of 10
The Steelers ran the ball 28 times for 111 yards in the game.
Le'Veon Bell led the way with 82 yards on 15 carries. LeGarrette Blount added 29 yards on eight carries, including several first-down bursts in short-yardage situations. Blount locked up the victory by getting the first down on 3rd-and-1 just before the two-minute warning. Blount ran for 18 of his yards on the only touchdown drive by the Steelers offense.
Bell and Blount combined to average 4.8 yards per carry, and Steelers running backs combined for 11 receptions. Bell caught five of those, and Blount caught three.
Will Johnson's first reception of the year went for 12 yards and gave the Steelers a first down in the second quarter.
Grade: B+
Wide Receivers and Tight Ends
3 of 10
Michael Palmer stole the show among this position group.
The 6'5", 252-pound tight end caught his second pass as a Steeler and scored his first career touchdown in black and gold. Ben Roethlisberger found him for a one-yard connection on 3rd-and-goal from the Jaguars' 1 to give the Steelers a 10-3 lead in the second quarter. The 26-year-old Palmer played three seasons in Atlanta before coming to Pittsburgh last year.
Heath Miller set up Palmer's score with a six-yard reception that moved the ball to the 1-yard line. Miller caught three passes for 46 yards, including a 13-yard reception on 3rd-and-2 from the Steelers' 44 that forced the Jaguars to use their second timeout with 3:08 left in the game.
Antonio Brown barely kept alive his streak of games with at least five receptions and 50 yards. Before the Steelers took a knee at the end of the game, Ben Roethlisberger dumped a screen pass to Brown for his fifth reception to extend the streak to 21.
Brown led Steelers receivers with five receptions for 84 yards. Three of those grabs came on the field-goal drive that tied the game 3-3 in the second quarter.
Justin Brown showed steadier hands and caught three passes for 26 yards, all on the same possession. Darrius Heyward-Bey caught his first pass as a Steeler.
Grade: A-
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Offensive Line
4 of 10
Ben Roethlisberger was sacked four times Sunday. Abry Jones had two of those sacks. On one of them, he beat Maurkice Pouncey and forced Ben Roethlisberger to fumble the ball away at the Jaguars' 18-yard line.
The offensive line was only penalized twice, a false start on Ramon Foster and an illegal use of hands on Kelvin Beachum. The unit also opened holes for an efficient running game.
But four sacks is unacceptable.
Grade: C-
Defensive Line
5 of 10
No Steelers defensive lineman had more than one tackle, according to ESPN.com.
However, the line did its part to limit the Jaguars to 56 rushing yards on 15 carries, an average of 3.7 yards per carry. The Steelers have held their opponents to 161 combined rushing yards in the last three games.
Brett Keisel appeared to get his hand on a Blake Bortles pass on 3rd-and-5 from the Jacksonville 24 with the Steelers leading 17-9 and 4:18 left in the game. The Jaguars were forced the punt and never saw the ball again.
Grade: B+
Linebackers
6 of 10
Lawrence Timmons kept a lot of plays from getting to the safeties. He shared the team lead with seven tackles, including a tackle for loss.
Jason Worilds had the Steelers' only sack, his second of the season, as well as three quarterback hits and a tackle for loss.
Jarvis Jones isn't exactly a sack machine, but it seems the Steelers pass rush is feeling his absence. One quarterback sack isn't enough, but the linebackers' grade won't dip too low because they were part of an overall defensive effort that yielded just three field goals.
Grade: B-
Defensive Backs
7 of 10
After Ben Roethlisberger's fumble in the red zone, Brice McCain bailed him out with a 22-yard pick-six two plays later. McCain's touchdown increased a precarious Steelers lead to 17-9 with 11:32 left in the game.
Cortez Allen added an interception, fighting with Jaguars receiver Allen Robinson for the ball. ESPN.com credited Allen with three pass breakups and William Gay with two.
Allen tied Lawrence Timmons for the team lead with seven tackles, and Troy Polamalu had six.
The Steelers held Jaguars rookie quarterback Blake Bortles to 191 passing yards, and the Jaguars converted on only three of their 12 third downs.
Troy Polamalu committed the only penalty by a defensive back when he was offsides flying over the line of scrimmage.
Grade: A
Special Teams
8 of 10
Shaun Suisham made the only field goal he attempted, a 24-yarder that tied the game 3-3 in the second quarter.
Brad Wing rebounded from his fateful 29-yard punt last week, averaging 45.4 yards on five punts and pinning the Jaguars inside their 20-yard line twice.
Dri Archer returned one kickoff to the 23, but the play was called back 10 yards because of a penalty. He returned one other kickoff to the 12.
The Steelers cut down on penalties Sunday, but special teams had little to do with that. Four of their seven infractions came on special teams.
Grade: B
Coaching
9 of 10
The Steelers coaching staff made an honest effort to reduce penalties. They brought high school officials into practice.
Apparently that worked. The Steelers were flagged seven times for 50 yards Sunday, their lowest totals of the season in both categories.
There were no facemask penalties and no personal fouls. The most easily preventable penalty was the delay-of-game Lance Moore drew for spiking the ball after his one reception. Mike Tomlin chewed him out on the sidelines for that.
The play-calling was questionable at times. The Steelers were too conservative early in the game, mixing in running plays and screens against the league's worst pass defense.
On 1st-and-goal from the Jaguars' 4-yard line, the Steelers passed twice, and then Ben Roethlisberger was sacked. The Steelers settled for a game-tying field goal early in the second quarter. The Steelers didn't seem to really play power football until the fourth quarter.
In the fourth quarter, Mike Tomlin wasted a challenge on a fourth-down spot.
The victory over Blake Bortles and the Jaguars improves Dick LeBeau's record to 18-2 against rookie quarterbacks since he became the Steelers' defensive coordinator in 2004.
Grade: B
Final Grades
10 of 10
| Positional Unit | Overall Grade |
| QB | B+ |
| RB | B+ |
| WR/TE | A- |
| OL | C- |
| DL | B+ |
| LB | B- |
| DB | A |
| Special Teams | B |
| Coaching | B |
| Cumulative Grade | B |
The Steelers bounced back from a disheartening loss last week and beat a Jacksonville team that hung tough. They kept the Jaguars out of the end zone and held them to 243 yards of offense, their best showing this season.
Still, margin of victory matters when it comes to measuring a team's strength over the long haul, and it's concerning the Steelers could beat the 0-5 Jaguars by just one touchdown. Another red flag is the inability of the offense to score more than 10 points against the league's worst-rated defense.
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