The Pittsburgh Steelers came into Week 3 a battered and bruised team. There was no Ben Roethlisberger under center for the first time since 2016, and there was a certain unknown surrounding the start of the Mason Rudolph era. Nonetheless, off to San Francisco went into Levi Stadium to play the 2-0 49ers in hopes of claiming their first win of the 2019 regular season.
To start the game, the Steelers won the coin toss and decided to defer their possession to the second half, putting their defense on the field to start the game. After Jimmy Garappolo hit George Kittle for a first down, a screen pass was tipped and intercepted by T.J. Watt giving the Steelers the football deep in 49ers territory.
The Steelers’ offense didn’t do much with the free possession, and had to settle for a Chris Boswell 46-yard field goal to give them an early 3-0 lead. Still, points off of turnovers is a huge win for a Steelers team who has struggled in that area so far in 2019.
After both teams exchanged punts, Garoppolo was pressured on second down and another tipped pass sailed into the hands of a Pittsburgh defender. This time it was recently acquired Minkah Fitzpatrick who came down with the pass and set up the offense with tremendous field position for the second time during the opening quarter.
Rudolph and company were able to move the ball to the 5 yard line, but failed on third down when the offensive line wasn’t able to give Rudolph a clean pocket long enough to find an open receiver. The result was another Boswell field goal to make the score 6-0 with 1:29 left in the opening quarter.
The score came to a close with the score 6-0 with the 49ers threatening.