With an early injury to Anthony Richardson, Joe Flacco entered the game and led the host Indianapolis Colts over the surging Pittsburgh Steelers 27-24 Sunday.
After passing for 71 yards and rushing for 24 yards, Richardson left the game for Indianapolis (2-2) after a 14-yard run where DeShon Elliott hit the quarterback and dislodged the ball. The Colts recovered the loose ball, but the quarterback left the game for two plays to recover from the hit.
When Richardson returned, he attempted a designed rush to his left but went to the ground holding his right hip in pain. Richardson left the game for treatment but was later ruled out by the Colts.
In Richardson’s place, Flacco threw for 168 yards and two touchdowns. Flacco had patience in the pocket and completed 16 of 26 passes, including the Colts’ final touchdown drive where the veteran Super Bowl champion had three completions on third-and-long situations and eventually found Andrew Ogletree to give the Colts a 24-10 lead with 14:43 left.
The Colts had built a 17-0 lead on a 2-yard touchdown run by Jonathan Taylor, a 4-yard touchdown pass from Flacco to Josh Downs and a 33-yard Matt Gay field goal.
The Steelers got on the board with a 50-yard field goal from Chris Boswell to close the first half down 17-3.
Pittsburgh (3-1) battled back, scoring on three consecutive drives and cutting the deficit to three points on an 8-yard touchdown from Justin Fields to Pat Freiermuth with 3:40 to play.
After the Steelers got the ball back, an errant snap went off the facemask of Fields and although the Steelers recovered, Fields had two incomplete passes on the final three plays to give the Colts the ball back with 29 seconds remaining.
Taylor rushed for 88 yards for the Colts and added a touchdown behind an offensive line that didn’t include starting center Ryan Kelly, who missed the game as a late scratch due to a neck injury. 2024 fourth-round draft pick Tanor Bortolini started in his place.
Fields struggled early for Pittsburgh, but recovered to throw for 312 yards with a touchdown pass and added two touchdowns on the ground (both during the second-half comeback attempt) with 55 yards rushing. What hurt the first-year Steelers quarterback was the play of the offensive line. Fields was sacked four times, resulting in 30 lost yards.
The Fields performance was needed for a Steelers backfield who lost Cordarrelle Patterson (ankle) to injury in the defeat.
–Field Level Media
