Steelers vs. Chargers, Week 6: 1st quarter in-game update

When the NFL put together their 2019 regular season schedule, they thought Week 6 of Sunday Night Football would have a matchup of 2004 NFL Draft class quarterbacks between Ben Roethlisberger and Philip Rivers. What they got was a 1-4 Steelers team with third string quarterback Devlin Hodges at quarterback against a 2-3 Chargers team.

Nonetheless, the Steelers were playing to keep their season alive, and head into the bye week with some semblance of momentum. The Chargers were looking to re-insert themselves in the AFC West race with a big home win.

The Steelers won the opening coin toss, and elected to defer their possession to the start of the second half, instead sending their defense on the field to hopefully set the table for their offense to have good field position. And after a first down on the first play from scrimmage, the Steelers defense forced an early punt.

After a three-and-out by Hodges and company, the Steelers’ pass rush was all over Rivers from the first snap. On the second snap of the drive Rivers tried dumping the ball off to Melvin Gordon on a swing pass, but the pass went backwards. Devin Bush had the smarts to pick up the ball and run it into the endzone for the early score. Chris Boswell’s point after was good, making the score 7-0 with 10:51 left in the first quarter.

After the turnover, Rivers responded with a strike to Hunter Henry for a first down on the Chargers’ next drive. But his next pass was tipped by Tyson Alualu and intercepted by, none other than Devin Bush.

What happened next was something which hasn’t happened much for the Steelers so far in 2019. That would be the team turned a turnover into a touchdown. The drive was 7 plays in length, but featured all James Conner. Conner converted a 12-yard run for the second touchdown of the quarter. Boswell’s point-after was good, making the score 14-0 with 4:29 left in the first quarter.

It would remain 14-0 to end the quarter.