Steelers Collapse Against Colts, Playoffs in Doubt

PITTSBURGH -- The Pittsburgh Steelers entered their Week 15 contest against the Indianapolis Colts still in the playoff picture with a 7-6 record but their postseason hopes took another devastating hit as they lost for the third week in a row.

Mitch Trubisky threw a pair of interceptions and was benched and the Steelers defense couldn't contain Indianapolis' duo of backup running backs as they fell 30-13 on the road at Lucas Oil Stadium.

The Steelers won the toss and elected to receive, starting the game on offense. But after a run up the middle for no gain and then a four-yard sack, Pittsburgh found themselves punting on their opening drive.

Indianapolis started to drive on the following possession, moving the chains twice. But after a T.J. Watt sack, his 15th of the season, the Colts set up for a 56-yard field goal - missing and putting the ball back in the Steelers' hands.

After the defense gave them some good starting field position near midfield, the Steelers offense began to find some rhythm. Mitch Trubisky spread the ball around and hit on two long passes for first downs to George Pickens. Jaylen Warren got them to the one-yard line with a tough run and Trubisky punched in a one-yard touchdown run on fourth down but his score didn't come without controversy.

Trubisky fumbled, then Najee Harris picked up the ball and ran it into the endzone. Officials invoked the fourth down fumble rule, which means only the fumbler could advance the ball, meaning the Steelers would have turned the ball over on downs. But after review, they concluded that Trubisky broke the plane before fumbling, giving the Steelers a 6-0 lead.

The Steelers got the ball back quickly after a three-and-out from the Colts and blocked punt by Nate Herbig. The Steelers started their next drive back on the one-yard line and cashed in the field position with a short touchdown pass from Trubisky to Diontae Johnson.

The Colts answered quickly. Gardner Minshew completed a 21-yard pass and a 42-yard pass, both to Michael Pittman and Zack Moss fought off a horse collar tackle from Mykal Walker to score a touchdown and make it 13-7 with 11:28 left in the second quarter.

Trubiksy's strong start was halted by an interception on the ensuing possession. He was looking to give Pickens a chance on a jump ball but left it a little short and Pickens lost the battle for the jump ball with Nick Cross.

Then bodies began to drop like flies with Damontae Kazee ejected for a personal foul on a hit that injured Pittman and the next play Minkah Fitzpatrick went down with a knee injury. Nevertheless, the Colts drove up to the goalline methodically and thought they had a game-tying touchdown in the bag, but Tyler Goodson was ruled just short of the goal line. The Colts took two more cracks at the endzone but failed to convert, giving the Steelers the ball back at the two-yard line, hanging onto a six-point lead.

The Steelers were unable to make anything of their final possession of the half and didn't kill enough clock to keep the Colts off the board. After punting them back to their own 12-yard line, the Steelers gave up two big basses to D.J. Montgomery, the second of which was a 14-yard touchdown catch to give Indianapolis a 14-13 lead. A pass interference call on Joey Porter Jr. gave them 26 free yards as well.

The Steelers went into halftime trailing by that same score but got a quick stop to open the second half. Their attempt to swing momentum was killed when Harris fumbled at the Steelers' 18-yard line. Minshew and company needed just one play to convert a touchdown pass to Mo Allie Cox. They added a field goal after another three-and-out from the Steelers and extended their lead to 11 points with less than six minutes gone in the third quarter.

After another Steelers three-and-out the Colts simply bludgeoned their way into field goal range with a 15-play, 70-yard drive that ate up 8:57 and featured 14 straight run plays that went right through the heart of the Pittsburgh defense. A 31-yard kick from Matt Gay gave Indianapolis a 27-13 lead.

The offense came back on with time dwindling and the lead growing but stabilized things with a critical fourth-down conversion on a 15-yard pass from Trubisky to Diontae Johnson. Then Julian Flemming put the final nail in the coffin with an interception of Trubisky, the third turnover of the afternoon for Pittsburgh.

With Mason Rudolph warming up on the sidelines and preparing to enter the game, the Steelers defense let up another bruising, run-focused drive but it ended in a missed field goal from Gay, keeping the margin at 14 points as the two-minute warning arrived.

But Rudolph couldn't give the Steelers any different results and an 11-yard sack on fourth down sealed Pittsburgh's fate. The Colts took the ball back at their own 25-yard line and they knelt out the remainder of the clock. But Mike Tomlin opted to burn his final three timeouts and the Colts had to kick a field goal to extend the lead to 17 points before the final buzzer sounded.

The Steelers have now fallen out of playoff position in the AFC wild card standings and sit in last place in the division after Cincinnati's dramatic win in overtime over the Vikings. They'll host the Bengals next week before hitting the road to face the Seattle Seahawks and Baltimore Ravens to close the regular season.

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