The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Carolina Panthers 24-16 in week 15 action.
The Steelers got the ball back quick from Sam Darnold and the Panthers to open the game. Najee Harris was a big outlet for the Steelers on their first drive, capped off by a Harris touchdown on his fifth carry of the drive to give them an early 7-0 lead.
The Panthers started to get rolling at the end of the first quarter into the second capitalizing with a touchdown through DJ Moore to tie it 7-7.
The Steelers offensive responded immediately working their way down field with a huge catch from George Pickens, setting up Jaylen Warren to rush it in to double the Steelers lead to 14-7.
The rest of the half became quiet offensively as either team could get no momentum started over 5 possessions. The Steelers were helped out by a big sack from T.J. Watt to give the Panthers a 9-yard loss.
The Steelers came out gunning in the second half, taking a long drive all the way downfield for Mitch Trubisky to rush in for a touchdown of his own. Making it 21-7 as the Steelers were trying to put this game to bed early.
The Steelers ended the third quarter on back to back sacks of Darnold coming from Alex Highsmith and Cam Heyward. The Panthers opened the final quarter knocking down a field goal to try and crawl back into the game, making it 21-10.
The Panthers continued to push in their following drive as well, but the defense was able to slow them down getting 2 more sacks through Terrell Edmunds, T.J. Watt, and Cam Heyward. The Panthers settled for another field goal to make it 21-13.
Both teams would end the game by trading off 50-yard plus field goals to bring the final score to 24-16. The Steelers improve to 6-8.
Mitch Trubisky threw 17/22 for 179 yards, getting sacked once and rushing for one touchdown.
Najee Harris lead the run game going 86-yards over 24 carries with one touchdown. Jaylen Warren got one touchdown over his 11 carries.
Diontae Johnson was Trubisky’s main target today gaining 98-yards over 10 receptions.
Alex Highsmith recorded one sack and T.J. Watt and Cam Heyward each had 1.5 sacks. Robert Spillane led the defense with 7 total tackles.