The Pittsburgh Steelers were presented with a prime opportunity to beat the undefeated San Francisco 49ers, but their offense failed the team.
Despite forcing the San Francisco 49ers to turn the ball over five times, the Pittsburgh Steelers still found a way to lose in Week 3. The 49ers improbably advanced to 3-0 while the Steelers fell to 0-3. That’s a sentence I never thought I would write four weeks ago.
Pittsburgh’s defense deserves a lot of credit for holding the 49ers to 24 points. It was on the offense to outscored San Francisco, but the Steelers were only able to generate 20 points in Mason Rudolph‘s debut as a starter.
While it was a disappointing outcome, some Steelers do deserve to be recognized for their play. On the other hand, some deserve to be called out for their failure to perform. We’ll touch on both successes and failures as we look back at a letdown performance from Pittsburgh in Week 3.
Stud: Devin Bush
While his coverage is sometimes questionable and he can still be vulnerable to missing tackles, Devin Bush has taken a huge role and carried it with pride. The rookie 10th overall pick led the Steelers in tackles on Sunday with 11, including nine solo efforts. No player in the entire game had more tackles than Bush. He now has 29 combined tackles on the year.
While Bush still has to iron out his flaws, he did manage to recover two fumbles against the 49ers. Bush has quickly proven that he has a nose for loose footballs. He recovered a fumble last week against the Seattle Seahawks and now he has three on the year. Hopefully, Bush will continue to improve each week.
Dud: Cameron Heyward
While the heart of the defensive line was able to record four combined tackles on Sunday and one tackle for loss, Heyward needs to produce more for the Steelers. While his run defense has been solid, the Steelers need Heyward to have a larger impact in the pass rush. The Steelers, who have led the NFL in sacks in each of the past two seasons, were only able to sack Jimmy Garoppolo once.
Heyward was injured late in the fourth quarter. Shortly after walking off of the field, the 49ers scored the go-ahead touchdown. Heyward is the veteran leader of the defense, so he needs to step up and fill that role with his production as well.