On Monday night, the Pittsburgh Steelers survived a Chicago Bears fourth-quarter rally led by rookie Justin Fields to secure a 29-27 home win.
"We had it all the way, right?" coach Mike Tomlin quipped, via the team's official website. "That's just the nature of this thing. It's the National Football League. You're going to be in battles."
The game seemed all but over, as the Steelers held a 10-point lead with 6:31 left and the Bears lined up to punt. But Pittsburgh's Ray-Ray McCloud fumbled the ensuing boot, leading to a Chicago touchdown to tighten up the gap. The Steelers tacked on another field goal following a controversial taunting penalty on Bears linebacker Cassius Marsh.
The fun was just starting.
With 2:52 remaining, down 26-20, Fields drove the Bears on a seven-play, 75-yard TD drive to swipe the lead with 1:45 left.
"I thought they left me too much time," Ben Roethlisberger said, via the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Big Ben then led the Steelers into field goal range with the help of quick passes, including a 22-yarder to Diontae Johnson and a 13-yarder to Pat Freiermuth to get down to the 23-yard-line. Chris Boswell nailed another field goal to retake the lead.
"We have, in my opinion, one of the best field goal kickers in the league," Roethlisberger said. "I wasn't thinking about a touchdown. I was thinking about getting us down in field goal range."
The Steelers' defense then hung on, as Cairo Santos' 65-yard field goal try came up well short.
"If you've done this long enough, you know very few leads are safe," Roethlisberger said. "Games are never over, no matter how well you're playing or how bad you're playing. Tonight was one of those nights that hopefully we all can appreciate and know we have to play 60 minutes -- and sometimes more. You can't let up."
In the end, a win is a win. And all that matters is Pittsburgh moved to 5-3, keeping its spot in the middle of the AFC playoff hunt.
