Steelers 19, Falcons 16
The Steelers have been a different team since T.J. Watt returned from injury. Heading into Week 13, Pittsburgh was 3-1 with Watt this year, with the sole loss being to the Bengals in a game that saw the Steelers enter halftime with a lead. Pittsburgh continued its dominant defensive performances with yet another victory.
Though the Steelers won by just three points, they led 19-6 in the third quarter. They limited Atlanta to just 143 net yards in the opening half. Marcus Mariota finally engineered some scoring drives late in the afternoon, but Pittsburgh had a great defensive stand in the red zone, then picked off Mariota again when the pressure got to him.
Mariota went just 13-of-24 for 167 yards, one touchdown and an interception. He’s fortunate that he wasn’t picked off twice, as a Pittsburgh defender dropped a bad pass of his that was thrown to Drake London.
Speaking of London, he had a monster game for the first time in a while. He converted six of his 12 targets for 95 yards. He was the only Falcon with more than 24 receiving yards.
Atlanta was at its best running the ball. Cordarrelle Patterson and Tyler Allgeier rushed for 60 and 52 yards, respectively, with Patterson having one more attempt, 11-10.
Najee Harris was the leading rusher in this game. He tallied 86 yards on 17 carries despite his status being unclear for most of the week.
Kenny Pickett had a solid performance throwing into one of the worst pass defenses in the NFL. Pickett went 16-of-28 for 197 yards and one touchdown.
Pickett primarily targeted just two players: Pat Freiermuth (3-76) and Diontae Johnson (5-60). Johnson appeared to lose a fumble in the second half, but that was overturned by replay. Surprisingly, George Pickens caught only one pass for two yards.
