PITTSBURGH STEELERS

THREE PLAYERS WHO STOOD OUT IN LOSS TO THE CHARGERS

The Pittsburgh Steelers are in a free fall. After escaping Jacksonville with a win, they’ve now dropped two straight games to AFC West opponents.

And really, for three straight games, the Steelers have been all over the map. They’ve shown flashes of brilliance and then been an utter disgrace.

Let’s be fair here. The officiating in the loss to the Chargers was beyond pitiful. In all honesty, if a referee from that crew doesn’t lose their job, something is wrong. They essentially spotted the Chargers two touchdowns.

However, the Steelers were horrendous in the second half. Pittsburgh punted on their first three possessions in the second half while Los Angeles scored touchdowns on their first three possessions.

With a difficult schedule looming, the Steelers have got to back to the drawing board and fix a lot of things quickly. In the meantime, there were some bright spots in a bad loss at home.

ANTONIO BROWN

Just when everyone thinks they’ve got Brown figured out, he goes out and proves everyone wrong again.

With the underwhelming season that Brown has had, for his standards at least, there have been many people questioning whether Brown has still has it or not. Games like tonight show people that he’s still one of the best.

It didn’t take long for Brown to get involved. He caught two passes on the Steelers’ first drive which led to a James Conner touchdown. Brown hauled in a total of 10 catches for 154 yards and a touchdown on the night.

Brown looked quick as ever in his route-running and was finding great separation. If it weren’t for a great play by Derwin James down the sideline, Brown would have had an amazing catch that would have put the Steelers in field goal range.

Brown was by far the best player on offense for the Steelers. He was lightning all over the field, and unfortunately, even 10 catches couldn’t get the job done Sunday night.

L.J. FORT

This guy has earned more playing time. He was all over the field tonight and was one of the bright spots in the Steelers’ defense tonight.

Fort, who is usually one of the ones spelling Jon Bostic or Vince Williams, earned some playing time tonight. He recorded a game-high 12 tackles, including nine solo tackles (another game-high). He also spent a good amount of time in pass coverage tonight, including having to cover Keenan Allen, who was in the slot quite a bit for the Chargers throughout the night.

Now, whether Fort, or any other linebacker should be given that responsibility is a totally different issue. In the meantime, Fort did everything he could possibly do tonight. He was fantastic in the middle of the Steelers defense. For everything that was wrong with the defense in this game, Fort was not one of them. He was absolutely stellar.

JAVON HARGRAVE

It’s a little contradictory to name two defensive players in this list when the defense looked so bad, but this guy deserves a nod.

When Stephon Tuitt went out with an injury a couple weeks ago, Hargrave has stepped his game up big time. He has been a force up front for the Steelers. The case was the same Sunday night against the Chargers.

The Chargers couldn’t run the ball at all in the first half and Hargrave was a huge reason for that. He was constantly getting great pushes on the play, helping the Steelers win the line of scrimmage battle early on.

Hargrave also recorded a sack in the game. The particular play could have been listed as a coverage sack (with how long Philip Rivers held onto the ball), but with his play tonight, Hargrave deserved to have something nice to put on the stat sheet.

Hargrave centers the Steelers’ defensive line, which is the only bright spot in this defense right now. If the secondary can turn things around, the Steelers will be even better off, but having a great defensive line is always a good thing. Hargrave is a key component to that line.