Giants Can’t Get Off the Field on Third Down, Fall to Steelers 24-20

All it took was one quarter of football. Down 20-10 going into the fourth and final quarter the Pittsburgh Steelers scored fourteen unanswered points to beat the New York Giants 24-20 at Met Life Stadium. It was a game that the Giants seemed to be in control of heading into the fourth, then one play changed everything. On third and five from just about midfield Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger hit Mike Wallace on a short three yard crossing route. Wallace would do the rest beating four Giants defensive backs across the field and going 51 yards for the score. This was the turning point of the game. The Giants would go three and out and punter Steve Weatherford would make a touchdown saving tackle on Antonio Brown at the 13 yard line. On fourth and one from the Giants two, the Steelers would attempt a fake field goal that the Giants stopped dead in its tracks, and the momentum seemed to shift. However, the Giants could not do anything with the ball and gave it right back to Pittsburgh. It was then that the Steelers would go 51 yards in four minutes and fifty three seconds to take the lead on an Isaac Redman one yard touchdown run. Two plays earlier on third and seven the Giants made a stop that was taken away on a Jayron Hosley offside penalty. The Steelers would convert on their opportunity, get the first down, and then score the touchdown to take the lead. The story of the day was the Giants inability to get off the field on third down. Roethlisberger, who finished the day with 216 passing yards was 8 of 9 on third down conversions for 93 yards and a touchdown. Meanwhile, all three of the Giants fourth quarter possessions ended in a three and out for a grand total of minus eight total yards. As for the game itself, Eli Manning and the offense could only muster 182 total yards of offense while badly losing the time of possession battle 35:15 to 24:45. Even with the loss, the Giants still sit all alone in first place atop the NFC East at 6-3 with a match up against the 3-5 Cincinnati Bengals coming up next week. The Steelers improved to 5-3 with the victory and will host the reeling Kansas City Chiefs next Sunday night. Other game notes: Michael Boley picked up a Roethlisberger fumble and returned it 70 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter. Isaac Redman finished the day with 147 yards rushing for the Steelers to go along with his touchdown. The Giants defense did finish with four sacks on the day, two by Justin Tuck who tripled his season total. Stats courtesy of ESPN Follow on twitter @steve_armato