The Pittsburgh Steelers played in their second preseason game of 2022, and the Steelers won the game. Beyond the final score, how did the Steelers perform in their second contest of the preseason?

Offense

The Steelers opened the game with a drive that ended with a field goal attempt. Chris Boswell missed the field goal, his first attempt of the season. In both of his starts this preseason, Mitchell Trubisky has led the Steelers to a scoring opportunity. Unlike his first game, Trubisky didn’t throw for a touchdown in this game, but the other two Steeler quarterbacks did. The Steelers passing game was good again, with the Steelers throwing for 255 yards on 28/36 passing with two touchdowns and no interceptions.

While the Steelers yards per pass attempt was respectable at 6.9 yards per pass, the Steelers run game was the polar opposite of the previous week, following their 185 yards on 27 carries from the first preseason game with an awful 24 yards on 14 carries. It was even worse that that as the Steelers three running backs that ran the ball more than once combined to gain 2 yards on 8 carries, while 21 of the Steelers 24 yards came from a Mitchell Trubisky scramble and a run by receiver Steven Sims.

The Steelers failed to score 20 points, and gave up a safety. It wasn’t a good outing overall.

Honor Roll: Kenny Pickett, Pat Freiermuth, Mason Cole

Demerits: The entire run game, also the pass protection.

Final Grade: D

Defense

The Steelers defense did a much better job stopping the run this week, even as Tyson Alualu had a rough start in his first preseason action and both Cameron Heyward and Alex Highsmith, two of the Steelers best run defenders, didn’t play. Devin Bush played a bit better this week (not exactly high praise), T.J. Watt and Minkah Fitzpatrick both played a few snaps and made an impact, while Myles Jack continued his good play and Larry Ogunjobi looked pretty good in limited action.

The Jaguars scored 15 points, but with two of those coming from a safety, the Steelers defense only gave up 13 points. With 10 drives for the Jaguars, that’s 1.3 points per drive. The biggest complaint I can make about the defense is the Jaguars ability to move the ball when Trevor Lawrence was playing. The Steelers managed to keep the Jaguars young star out of the end zone, but the Jaguars offense collected 153 yards in the three drives Lawrence was the quarterback, that’s moving the ball. Although to be honest, watching Trevor Lawrence pick apart basic zone defense with zone-beater routes isn’t something that translates well to the regular season.

Honor Roll: Mark Robinson, DeMarvin Leal, Damontae Kaze

Demerits: Vanilla schemes.

Final Grade: B

Special Teams

Chris Boswell missed his first kick of the year, a 53-yard attempt in the first quarter. Pressley Harvin III did a good job punting, with a 44 yard average for his 4 punts, with one that was downed inside the 20-yard line. With only 14 return yards and no touchbacks, the Steelers punt game was on point and a big part of holding the Jaguars to only 15 points in the game.

The Steelers had two good kick returns while the Jaguars did not, so overall the special teams were very good outside of one missed kick.

Honor Roll: Pressley Harvin III, Benny Snell

Demerits: Chris Boswell’s miss.

Final Grade: B

Overall

The bad was the run game, and that hurts the overall grade a decent bit. But the Steelers left the game roughly as healthy as they entered it, and that matters more than the final score in preseason. The offensive line needs to get better and outside of that there isn’t a lot to complain about.

Final Grade: B

Now it’s your turn to tell us what you think. Vote your grade for the Steelers overall performance and let us know your thoughts in the comments below.