EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Le’Veon Bell helped deal his former team’s playoff hopes a big blow, leading the Jets to a 16-10 victory over the banged-up Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday afternoon.
“Not a lot to say, and appropriately so,” Coach Mike Tomlin said. “This time of year is put up or shut up time and we didn’t get the job done today. We accept responsibility for that and the ramifications of it.”
The Steelers (8-7) now need to win next Sunday at Baltimore (13-2), the A.F.C.’s top seed, just to stay alive. They also need Tennessee, which is also 8-7 and currently holds the final wild-card spot, to lose at Houston.
“We’re done worrying about what other people are doing,” linebacker T.J. Watt said. “I think it’s time, and it’s been that way the whole season, to focus on us. Figure stuff out and find ways to win football games.”
The Steelers also have more injury concerns as running back James Conner, center Maurkice Pouncey and quarterback Mason Rudolph all left the game with injuries.
“That’s what we’re paid to do,” Tomlin said of dealing with three key injuries. “We embrace that. We’re professionals. We’ve got quality depth. The standard of expectation doesn’t change. We didn’t do enough today.”
Bell ran for 72 yards, including seven on a big third-down play in the fourth quarter, on 25 carries while facing the team with which he spent his first six N.F.L. seasons. After sitting out all last season in a contract dispute, Bell signed with the Jets (6-9) in the off-season.
“You know, every win feels great,” Bell said. “But this one had a little extra topping on it.”
With thousands of Steelers fans twirling their Terrible Towels, the Jets struck first on their opening drive on Sam Darnold’s 23-yard touchdown pass to Robby Anderson. On third-and-9, Darnold stepped up and zipped a pass to Anderson, who reached up over two defenders while on the run in the back of the end zone and came down with the ball for the score.
The 11-play, 75-yard drive prominently featured Bell, who ran for 26 yards on four carries and had two catches for 6 yards.
The Steelers got to the Jets’ 19-yard line in the second quarter, but Jets safety Marcus Maye picked off Steelers quarterback Devlin Hodges in the end zone to keep Pittsburgh off the scoreboard.
That was it for Hodges, who was pulled by Steelers Coach Mike Tomlin in favor of Mason Rudolph with 9 minutes 20 seconds left in the opening half. Hodges, who started his fourth straight game, was 7 of 9 for 53 yards and the two interceptions.
Hodges came back early in the fourth quarter when Rudolph went out with a left shoulder injury. He had a chance to lead the Steelers to a comeback win, but fell short. His deep pass for James Washington on third-and-7 from the Jets’ 44-yard line was knocked away by Maye in the end zone. On fourth down, Hodges’s pass to JuJu Smith-Schuster fell incomplete in front of a MetLife Stadium crowd that appeared to be at least half-filled by Steelers fans.
Smith-Schuster, who returned after missing four games with a knee injury, had two catches for 22 yards.
The former Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward, now an offensive assistant on Adam Gase’s staff with the Jets, said he hoped to celebrate a win with a Gatorade shower — and he got one moments after New York’s final defensive stop sealed the win.
Hodges was 11 of 17 for 84 yards and the two interceptions, while Rudolph was 14 of 20 for 129 yards and a touchdown to Diontae Johnson that helped the Steelers erase a 10-0 deficit to tie the score at halftime.
Conner, who left in the second quarter with a thigh injury, had 32 yards on six carries before leaving. Pouncey hurt his left knee at the end of the third quarter.
Darnold was 16 of 26 for 183 yards and the touchdown to Anderson. Bell also had four catches for 21 yards.
“It was a dogfight,” Darnold said. “We knew that coming in, and we did our job.”
The Jets, who blew a 10-0 second-quarter advantage, retook the lead on Sam Ficken’s 37-yard field goal with over six minutes left in the third quarter. The drive was helped by the rookie tight end Trevon Wesco’s 32-yard catch-and-run that put the Jets at the Steelers’ 19-yard line.
Ficken’s 42-yard field goal with 3:11 left put the Jets ahead, 16-10.
Source: Football - nytimes.com
