Kenny Pickett replaces Mitch Trubisky, but Jets rally past Steelers on late TD

Cameron Heyward walked with a limp. His elbow was hurting, too. The biggest bruise the Pittsburgh Steelers defensive captain felt Sunday, though, was to his ego.

The Steelers defense, which was supposed to be so dominant this season, wilted down the stretch once again, giving up two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to allow the New York Jets to spoil Kenny Pickett’s NFL debut and escape Acrisure Stadium with a 24-20 victory.

The loss was the third in a row for the Steelers, who held a 20-10 lead midway through the final quarter before collapsing.

“Fourteen points in the fourth,” Heyward said. “Offense did enough. As a defense, we didn’t get off the field enough, especially in the second half, and that’s going to haunt me.”

Zach Wilson, the Jets’ second-year quarterback who made his season debut, led 81- and 65-yard touchdown drives on New York’s final two possessions. He threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to Corey Davis with 7 minutes, 31 seconds to play, and Breece Hall scored on a 2-yard run with 16 seconds left to complete the Jets comeback that was set up by a Pickett interception.

The loss left the Steelers stunned. Instead of celebrating Pickett’s debut that included two touchdown runs by the first-round pick from Pitt, the Steelers were trying to make sense of a loss that prevented them from being in a four-way tie for first in the AFC North.

That it came at the expense of the Jets (2-2) irked free safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, whose interception return in the third quarter set up a Pickett 1-yard TD run that gave the Steelers their first lead, 13-10.

“It’s very frustrating,” Fitzpatrick said. “It’s very frustrating losing to people that you know that you’re better than, more talented than, especially when you have the team that we have. We’re a great team with a lot of talent, a lot of great, young players.”

One of those players, T.J. Watt, will remain sidelined for another week until he can return from injured reserve. The Steelers are 0-7 all-time in his absence.

The way the Steelers lost continued a seasonlong theme. Consider that in the opener, the Steelers allowed the Bengals to score the tying touchdown with 2 seconds left in the fourth. Or that the defense couldn’t stop New England from running out the final 6:33 in Week 2. Or that Cleveland had 14-play and 11-play scoring drives in the second half that were the difference in a 29-17 loss to the Browns.

Referencing the repetitive mistakes, Heyward said, “they are showing their ugly heads every single games, even when we win.”

When Pickett scored his second rushing touchdown to give the Steelers a 20-10 with 13:36 remaining, the Jets had totaled 202 yards and 10 first downs. On their final two possessions, the Jets totaled 146 yards and got nine first downs.

“I thought we started strong, but it’s too many points on the board,” said outside linebacker Alex Highsmith, who had the Steelers’ only sack. “It’s unacceptable.”

The Jets converted once on third down and another time on fourth down before Wilson connected with Davis on the 5-yard touchdown pass on another third-down play to pull the Jets within 20-17.

Pickett, who replaced starter Mitch Trubisky after halftime, threw a 26-yard completion to George Pickens that set up the Steelers at the Jets 31 and the clock winding inside five minutes. But a bad exchange on a pitch to Jaylen Warren lost 5 yards. Pickett then scrambled and threw high toward the sideline. Tight end Pat Freiermuth got his hand on the ball, knocking it into the air. Jets safety Michael Carter II intercepted at the 35 with 3:34 to play.

“I wanted it higher than that, definitely,” Pickett said. “Either Pat was going to get it, or it was going to be out of bounds. I didn’t put it high enough.”

On the winning drive, the Jets converted a third down at the 2-minute warning and then overcame a second-and-20 situation to get inside the red zone. Hall fumbled on his 2-yard touchdown run, but officials determined the ball had crossed the plane of the goal line before coming loose.

Pickett threw a 27-yard completion to Pickens to the Jets 48, but his desperation heave into the end zone was intercepted. It was Pickett’s third of the game.

“Just disappointed,” Pickett said. “I wanted to come in and get the win, so that’s really just the emotions. Just disappointed we didn’t come out with the outcome we worked so hard for.”

Pickett completed 10 of 13 attempts for 120 yards in relief of Trubisky, who was sacked three times and completed 7 of 13 passes for 84 yards with an interception as the Steelers trailed 10-6 at the half.

“We just thought we needed a spark,” coach Mike Tomlin said.

Tomlin said he wasn’t ready to announce a starter for the game next Sunday at Buffalo. The game kicks off a four-week stretch against the Bills (3-1), Buccaneers (2-1 entering Sunday night), Dolphins (3-1) and Eagles (4-0) before the bye week.

“It’s not the way you want to start a season,” Highsmith said. “I feel like you can see the true measure of a team by how they bounce back from adversity. It’s going to show a lot about us how we bounce back this week.”