With just 11 weeks into the regular season, teams seeking the postseason are beginning to emerge. Steelers and Chargers are two such organizations with playoff chances and in the most recent SNF Los Angeles got a long-suffering local triumph by score of 41-37.
The Chargers comfortably dominated the commitment process for 45 minutes And when Brandon Staley took his foot off the gas, Pittsburgh put Los Angeles in serious trouble and came close to leaving SoFi Stadium with a seventh win of the year.
In the first half of the match, the Los Angeles club took advantage with by Austin Ekeler touchdowns (6-yard carry and 10-yard catch) and field goal by Dustin Hopkins (30 yards). The Steelers discounted with field goal de Chris Boswell to open the electronic and air connection between Ben Roethlisberger (28 of 44, 273 yards, three touchdowns) and Diontae Johnson.
Second half
The third quarter promised the Chargers would seal the win quickly. Justin Herbert (30 of 41, 382 yards, three touchdowns, one interception) met Ekeler for the second time at night within the diagonals and Hopkins reappeared with a 41-yard field goal.
What nobody anticipated is that the last 15 minutes would be dizzying And thanks to a 17-point lead, the Chargers clung tooth and nail to victory.
It all started with Boswell’s second field goal on the night (36 yards), followed by a punt blocked by the Steelers that rookie Najee Harris traded for six points with a one-yard carry.
Later came an exchange of touchdowns: for the Chargers Ekeler completed touchdown poker and for Pittsburgh Eric Ebron did the honors.
The second ball exchange, an interception by Cameron Sutton, represented the temporary equalizer after a reception by Pat Freiermuth which ended up in the end zone. The somersault came 59 seconds later with Boswell’s third FG.
With 3:24 left on the clock, the Chargers had ample chances to regain dominance and did so in just over a minute with a 53-yard spiral from Herbert to Mike Williams.
The bad news is that Pittsburgh still had enough time to think about the comeback. Aware of that, Los Angeles sealed the win with a pair of sacks to “Big Ben” courtesy of Kyler Fackrell and Joey Bosa.
With this result, the Chargers assault the sixth rung of the AFC seeding (the Bills move to seventh) and the Steelers come out of the postseason positions.
