Pitt Stop

The Jacksonville Jaguars generally avoided mistakes and allowed the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense to be the ones to self-destruct with two pick sixes in the third quarter in a 23-9 upset in Week 5.

Jacksonville has been a difficult team to figure out in 2017 with unpredictable ups and downs on a week-to-week basis. After losing to the New York Jets in a game filled with errors last week, the Jaguars were big underdogs against the Steelers.

But the defense has been consistently strong throughout the season for Jacksonville and did most of the Jaguars’ scoring by itself with touchdowns on back-to-back drives.

The first interception was taken by Telvin Smith off a deflection from the line of scrimmage and taken 28 yards for a touchdown. On the next drive, Jalen Ramseydeflected a pass into the arms of Barry Church who took it 51 yards for another touchdown that gave the Jaguars a 20-9 lead.

Ben Roethlisberger finished the game with 312 yards passing, primarily targeting Antonio Brown who posted 10 receptions for 157 yards receiving. But Roethlisberger also threw a pair of interceptions to Tashaun Gipson and one to Ramsey early. The five interceptions are a career worst for Roethlisberger who hadn’t thrown four since the 2008 season.

After the game, he made comments that seemed to suggest he has doubts about how much longer he should play in the NFL, although at least one reporter there believed he was speaking facetiously.Jacksonville ended the game with 18 consecutive running plays, milking clock and grinding away with Leonard Fournette, who had 181 rushing yards and two touchdowns, including a 90-yard burst in the final minutes of the fourth quarter.