NFL: Madness!

Incredible spectacle! The Pittsburgh Steelers are one-and-done in the playoffs, against which Jacksonville Jaguars put it a 42:45 bankruptcy. But it wasn’t the low-scoring game with dominant defenses that was expected by many – alternately, the openers provided a point spectacle! As far as possible, the Jags had the better game plan with them. After the dominant success in Week 5, it was the second Jaguars success in Pittsburgh this season!

The Steelers had the first Moral-Boost on their side – Antonio Brown got fit in time and started as expected. Apart from that, however, Pittsburgh was literally run over by the Jaguars at first: Jacksonville relied on a good mix of hard inside-runs and play-action passes, which set Blake Bortles (14/26,214 YDS, TD) to rhythm early on. Bortles had more passing-yards (34) on the first drive than in the first half against Buffalo in the previous week (33). Also the aggressiveness in the play-calling fit, at 4th&Goal Leonard Fournette jumped into the end zone.

And it was even more bitter for Pittsburgh, who was fortunate to have Center Maurkice Pouncey on the pitch after a nudge against an impartial opponent: Myles Jack captured a pass from Ben Roethlisberger (37/58,469 YDS, 5 TD, INT, FUM) spectacularly, galloping into the final zone at the next play. Jacksonville didn’t do anything crazy, but executed his blocks well and designed the offense for Bortles and Fournette as simple and at the same time as efficient as possible.

T.J. Yeldon finished another run game and fast Bortles pass driven drive from a short distance and suddenly the Jags were 21:0! Only then was there a first sign of life on the Steelers’ opener a perfect touchdown pass on Antonio Brown brought the Steelers closer again – but only for a short time: Roethlisberger held the ball in his pocket for too long, Ngakoue beat him out and Telvin Smith carried the egg back to the touchdown! It went back and forth now, before the half-time break Martavis Bryant caught the 36-yard touchdown at 4th&11 and everything was open again.

The tide turned from there. Pittsburgh came out of the break with much better play-calling and the first drive led – favored by a more than questionable penalty against Ramsey – down the field, ended by another perfect touchdown pass from Roethlisberger to Bell. It went on like this: The Steelers-Offense found a great balance and constantly added to the Jags-Defense, plus the Big Plays – again in Fourth Down Brown managed an inconceivable touchdown catch!

But Jacksonville’s attack came back just in time. Bortles get two third-down-conversions via pass, in the Red Zone the play-calling of the Jags hit again: A play-action-pass to the fullback out of the I-formation, after Jacksonville had set a clear bet on the run to run the clock down. Pittsburgh made it through a curious backwards TD pass on Bell, but the onside kick didn’t work out and Jacksonville made everything clear via Field Goal 1:50 before the end. The Jaguars drive to New England for the AFC Championship Game!

Pittsburgh Steelers – Tennessee Titans 42:45 (0:14,14:14,7:0,21:17) BOXSCORE

The game seemed to be toppling: Pittsburgh had come close to a touchdown, while Jacksonville’s offense was totally inefficient. Then came a decisive sequence: The Steelers blocked the punt – but could not convert another short fourth down into a first down. A few plays later Bortles found Cole with a 45-yard pass and Fournette did the rest from a short distance. This put the Jags in front again with two touchdowns and instead of the possible Steelers touchdown the way to an away win was smoothed.

It was clear to everyone that Ryan Shazier was missing the Steelers. How much he was missing was evident in the Run Game on the one hand, but also in the Play Action Game of the Jaguars Offense on the other hand. Time and again, receivers were completely uncovered, allocations often didn’t fit, and Pittsburgh was noticeably lacking in Shazier’s explosiveness.

A big question before the game was: How would Jacksonville defend the slot and Underneath passes as well as the run? The answers were often given by Smith. The linebacker collected 16 tackles and carried Roethlisberger’s fumble back to the touchdown. A great performance of Smith. And Bortles also deserves praise:”It wasn’t exciting at all, especially in comparison to Roethlisberger’s spectacular appearance. But Bortles implemented his concepts very well and was on the spot at Third Down several times.

The Steelers increased during the game and were able to control the Line of Scrimmage at least against the run. Against the pass? Here it was a very weak performance of a Steelers front that should have dominated this Jaguars line in every respect. Just late in the second half, when the game actually seemed to tip in Steelers direction, Bortles always had a huge pocket at critical moments.