Steelers Halt Rams

The Steelers won their fourth in a row and fifth in the past six games with a 17-12 victory that must have reminded the players from the Super Bowl XIV victory against the Rams who were at the game of the way they used to play defense 40 years ago.

“That was fun, that was mean, but it was required,” coach Mike Tomlin said. “I just can’t say enough about the fight of the guys.”

The victory improved the Steelers to 5-4 — the first time this season they went over the .500 mark — and moved them into a tie for the second wild-card spot in the AFC. They have a short week before their next game — Thursday night in Cleveland against the Browns (3-6).

Even though it was the first time since the season opener in New England they failed to score at least 20 points in a game, all the Steelers needed was one more offensive touchdown than the Rams to secure the win. And they got that with 34 seconds remaining in the first quarter from James Washington, who caught a 3-yard touchdown over cornerback Troy Hill — one of a team-high six catches for 90 yards against the Rams.

“We keep finding ways to win,” said guard David DeCastro. “The defense is playing lights out. They did it from start to finish. It was really impressive.”

The defense held the Rams offense without a touchdown and had four takeaways, two by Fitzpatrick. The Rams’ only touchdown came on a fumble return by linebacker Dante Fowler after a high snap over Mason Rudolph’s head on the third play of the game.

It was the first time the Rams failed to score an offensive touchdown in a game since a 15-6 loss in Chicago on Dec. 9 last season.

“For them not to get in the end zone, that’s really big,” said cornerback Joe Haden, who had an interception and tipped the pass that Fitzpatrick picked off with 20 seconds remaining to effectively end the game. “They’re a really good offense, they have really good players. We’re very happy what we did and we think we can continue to play like this.”

Not only did the Steelers allow the Rams to convert just 1 of 14 third-down chances, they held receiver Cooper Kupp without a catch on just four targets. Kupp was leading the league in third-down catches (21) and yards (366) and was coming off a game in which he had 220 yards receiving against the Cincinnati Bengals.

“It says we’re a good defense,” Fitzpatrick said. “I think we’ve been playing pretty well, week to week. We could have done some things better, but it says we’re a good defense.”

Nobody has been better than Fitzpatrick, who provided the biggest defensive play when he returned a fumble 43 yards for touchdown after quarterback Jared Goff’s arm was hit by nose tackle Javon Hargrave in the second quarter. It was Fitzpatrick’s second return for touchdown in as many games and sixth takeaway since being acquired in a trade before the third game of the season.

Fitzpatrick is the first Steelers defensive player to have a touchdown return in back-to-back weeks since cornerback Sam Washington in 1984.

“Kevin Colbert probably should have given away four picks for him,” said outside linebacker Bud Dupree.

Despite that, the Steelers still had to withstand two drives by the Rams in the final 2½ minutes to secure the victory.

The first ended when safety Terrell Edmunds broke up a fourth-down pass for wide receiver Josh Reynolds in the end zone with 1:25 remaining. Defensive end Cam Heyward batted a pass on third-and-10 at the 30 to set up the fourth-down play.

After the Rams got the back at their own 34 with 61 seconds remaining, the second drive ended when Goff’s pass on first down from his own 42 was tipped by Haden and intercepted by Fitzpatrick with 20 seconds remaining.

The four takeaways pushed the Steelers’ season total to 26 — one behind the New England Patriots’ league-leading total (27) — and kept alive their streak of having at least two takeaways in every game this season. Goff was sacked four times, giving the Steelers 33 on the season.

“Hopefully we can grow from this,” said Heyward, was had a sack, three quarterback hurries and two batted passes. “I know it wasn’t perfect, but I just loved the way we battled. I never felt like we blinked and thought like, ‘Oh shoot, we got to catch back up.’ Every single situation we felt like we can attack it.”

Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald, who had been relatively quiet in his return to Heinz Field, sacked Mason Rudolph in the end zone for a safety to cut the Steelers lead to 14-12 early in the fourth quarter.

The Steelers had only 272 yards offense and were just 5 of 16 on third down, but the offense came up with a 14-play drive that ate eight minutes off the clock following Donald’s safety that culminated with a 33-yard field goal by Chris Boswell. That gave them a five-point lead with 2:46 remaining, setting the stage for the defense to come up with not one, but two stops in the final minutes.