Indianapolis, IN
Winners and losers from Pittsburgh Steelers’ loss to the Indianapolis Colts
INDIANAPOLIS — The Pittsburgh Steelers came out slow against the Indianapolis Colts and paid the price for it, falling 27-24 in a valiant comeback attempt. However, Pittsburgh still sits at 3-1 and will be atop the AFC North, so it’s not all bad for the Steelers. Regardless, this loss highlighted a lot of issues that bubbled to the surface despite some very good play all around the team through their first three wins.
Here are the winners and losers from the Steelers’ loss to the Colts:
Loser: Linebackers
You can put Patrick Queen and Payton Wilson in this bucket, especially. The Steelers’ linebackers have struggled throughout much of the year, but a dominant defensive line has made most of the issues. With the Colts having the offensive line to neutralize Pittsburgh’s defensive line. In the second half, the linebackers did step up their play against the run, but with consistent miscommunication across the defense, some of that comes back to Queen. Queen himself missed a few keys and struggled to fit the run early. Wilson struggled in coverage mightily, getting caught being too aggressive on too many reps.
Colts head coach Shane Steichen did an excellent job pitting the linebackers in conflict, which sank the defense for much of the day. Without the linebacker play to stay afloat, Pittsburgh could not secure themselves a win.
Winner: Darnell Washington
Washington continues to prove that he is fantastic. He has taken a second-year leap as a blocker and cleared out numerous lanes for the Steelers running backs, but the plus ones in the box, which we will get to in a bit, prevented much of that from mattering. As a pass catcher, there is untapped potential, and he can be deadly after the catch when given space.
Washington is a solid player who gets better each week. The Steelers will want to acquire that type of player as they continue to build their team into a contender.
Loser: Coaching Staff
The entire Steelers coaching staff deserves some flack. Mike Tomlin does for a poor challenge and awful clock awareness throughout the game. From that perspective, the way he called the game made no sense. Tomlin failed to challenge a third down where Najee Harris clearly got a first one. The Steelers came out extremely flat and that goes to the head coach.
Defenisve coordinator Teryl Austin struggled to adjust after the quarterback switch due to Anthony Richardson’s injury. The Steelers never blitzed or disguised their coverages, and instead let the Colts dissect their vanilla Cover 3 scheme. Pittsburgh needs to go deeper into its bag of tricks against clever offensive coordinators, something they have struggled to do. For the predictability, that falls on Austin.
Offensive coordinator Arthur Smith called a brutal game that put his team in tough spots. The Steelers ran on second-and-long five times throughout the game, and Smith’s insistence on running the football in bad situations hurt the team significantly. Pittsburgh’s run game continues to run in the mud, and their play-action game has shown no life down the field through four weeks of the season. All of that falls on him, and Pittsburgh’s struggles are, to a large point, on him.
Winner: DeShon Elliott
Elliott played well in this game, and the Steelers have themselves a legitimately solid safety. In a game where many players, including Joey Porter Jr. and Minkah Fitzpatrick, uncharacteristically struggled, Elliott was like a shining diamond in the sea. He continues to make the Steelers’ investment in him look smarter by the day.
Loser: Najee Harris
Harris averaged less than two yards per carry, posting 19 yards on 13 rush attempts. He did have a big play on the screen, but it did not make up the day. Harris is not a great schematic fit and Smith has done little to nothing to tweak it to him, even when the Steelers showed they could be a deadly pulling team last year.
However, Harris continues to show that his lack of burst, especially getting downhill with zone runs, is a huge issue for the Steelers. The icing on the cake was Harris not going out of bounds on the final drive, forcing the Steelers to rush their final play. He is a loser in this one, and is off to a disappointing start.
Winner: Cordarrelle Patterson
Patterson is efficient and fits this offense like a glove. Before his unfortunate ankle injury, the Steelers were working extremely well with Patterson taking much of the work from Harris, and his explosive, hit-it-quick style is just what the Steelers need. If he can get healthy, Patterson should take up even more time.
- BETTING: Check out our guide to the best PA sportsbooks, where our team of sports betting experts has reviewed the experience, payout speed, parlay options and quality of odds for multiple sportsbooks.
INDIANAPOLIS — One person is in critical condition following a shooting on Indy’s near east side.
According to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, around 8:10 p.m., officers were called to the 2000 block of East Washington Street on reports of a person shot.
Upon arrival, police located a 50-year-old man with injuries consistent with a gunshot wound.
He is currently reported to be in extremely critical condition.
No additional information has been made available at the time of this article’s publication.
This is a developing story; check back for updates.
The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission on June 17 gave AES the nod to raise electricity rates enough to earn an additional $71 million each year, a decision that drew reproof from Indiana lawmakers who called it another blow to cost-burdened consumers.
The approved rate represents less than half of the $192 million increase that AES initially requested. It’s also less than the $91 million increase proposed in an October settlement agreement between AES, the city of Indianapolis and major electricity consumers like Kroger and Walmart.
But the new rate is still significantly more than what the Indiana Office of Utility Consumer Counselor, the state agency representing ratepayers in the case, recommended in September. The OUCC’s proposal would have capped AES’s annual operating revenue at $21 million less than the current level.
The rate increase authorizes AES to earn a total of nearly $2 billion each year, or an estimated $384 million in profit.
The higher base rate comes as a double whammy for Indianapolis-area households, who are already paying more for electricity this summer after AES temporarily raised rates to account for higher-than-anticipated fuel costs during last winter’s storms. The increase also arrives against the backdrop of inflation, which rose to a three-year high last month, and surging gas prices due to the war in Iran.
Gov. Mike Braun wrote in a Wednesday post to X that he was “deeply disappointed” by the IURC’s approval of the rate increase.
“Hoosiers have spent years tightening their belts and making tough financial decisions,” Braun wrote. “It’s time for utility companies to do the same.”
The IURC’s decision also drew fire from the other side of the aisle. In a June 17 news release, five Democrats representing Indianapolis in the state Senate – J.D. Ford, Andrea Hunley, La Keisha Jackson, Fady Qaddoura, and Greg Taylor – chastised Indiana’s Republican supermajority for failing to rein in rising utility costs.
“Hoosiers pay more. Monopoly utilities collect more. And the leaders in the super-majority who promise affordability over and over again show those are just empty words,” the news release said. “Instead, they continue to defend a system that takes more and more out of our paychecks.”
The consumer advocacy group Citizens Action Coalition also slammed the rate increase. Ben Inskeep, CAC’s program director, said the decision left him “less optimistic that this commission is willing to do things differently and to actually hold utilities accountable.”
He said the IURC should have penalized AES for issues that plagued customers after the utility updated its billing system in 2023, including duplicated withdrawals for the same monthly bill.
The rate increase will take effect in two phases, with rates going up in July 2026 and January 2027. AES officials anticipate the hikes “will be less than $5 per month per phase” for a household that uses 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per month, according to a Wednesday news release from the utility.
“The IURC’s decision reflects a thorough, transparent process and balances the need for continued investment in the electric system with a focus on customer affordability,” the news release stated.
Under a state law that Braun signed in February, AES cannot ask for another increase to its base rate until January 2030 — though electricity bills could still go up for other reasons, like the fuel adjustment charge hitting consumers this month.
Three members of the five-member IURC signed off on the rate increase: Andy Zay, David Veleta, and David Ziegner. Commissioner Bob Deig dissented. Commissioner Anthony Swinger recused himself from the decision because he worked on the AES rate case for the OUCC before he was appointed to the IURC by Braun in January.
“None of this was taken lightly,” Zay, the IURC’s chair, said at the Wednesday hearing, adding that the commission and its staff had carefully weighed concerns about affordability. The commissioners did not go into further detail at the hearing.
But the commission’s order shows some of the debates that played out during the rate case. One point of contention was AES’s authorized return on equity — that is, how much the utility can earn each year in profits. Other disputes hinged on how AES forecasts its operating expenses.
The OUCC accused AES of including more than 100 “phantom hires,” vacant positions it did not necessarily intend to fill in its calculations. Last year, AES said that the rising costs of vegetation management, or trimming trees around power lines, also drove the need to raise rates. The OUCC recommended keeping vegetation management costs flat.
One factor that’s not driving higher prices? Data centers.
AES does not currently provide service to any data centers and did not include them in its calculations, AES president Brandi Davis-Handy said in testimony before the IURC.
Tilly Robinson is a Pulliam fellow for the Indianapolis Star. She can be reached at tilly.robinson@indystar.com.
Interactive radar | Weather alerts by county
WATCH LIVE COVERAGE
(WRTV) — A tornado watch has been issued through 1 a.m. EDT Thursday for much of Indiana, the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center said.
The watch area covers 47 of Indiana’s 92 counties, and includes Indianapolis and its surrounding counties.
Counties in the watch area are Bartholomew, Blackford, Boone, Brown, Carroll, Cass, Clay, Clinton, Daviess, Decatur, Delaware, Fountain, Grant, Greene, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Henry, Howard, Huntington, Jackson, Jay, Jennings, Johnson, Knox, Lawrence, Madison, Marion, Martin, Miami, Monroe, Montgomery, Morgan, Owen, Parke, Putnam, Randolph, Rush, Shelby, Sullivan, Tippecanoe, Tipton, Vermillion, Vigo, Wabash, Warren, and White.
WRTV Meteorologist Ryan Morse says Wednesday afternoon’s rain was the first of two rounds coming to the Hoosier state. A line of supercells were expected to form in Illinois and travel into central Indiana.
In neighboring Illinois, dozens of counties are under a tornado watch until 10 p.m. CDT/11 p.m. EST.
All threats of severe weather were on the table: damaging wind, strong tornadoes, large hail, and flooding.
Severe storms should exit Indiana in the early morning hours.
WISH-TV Meteorologist Keith Gibson says people should have multiple ways of getting alerts and have electronic devices fully charged in case they lose power.
The next chance for rain after these storms could be on Saturday.
-
Georgia3 minutes agoGeorgia National Fair announces ticket pricing changes for 2026
-
Hawaii8 minutes agoHawaii economy remains resilient despite inflation – The Garden Island
-
Idaho15 minutes agoIdaho Targets Japanese Beetle in Caldwell to Protect Agriculture
-
Illinois18 minutes agoPedestrian fatally struck by Metra train in Palatine, Illinois
-
Indiana23 minutes agoMan dies after near east side apartment shooting
-
Iowa30 minutes agoIowa man injured in 3-vehicle crash on I-35 near Albert Lea
-
Kentucky33 minutes agoDemetrus Liggins disputes Fayette County board’s claim he resigned, attorneys allege misconduct
-
Kansas33 minutes agoWhere to watch St. Louis Cardinals vs Kansas City Royals: TV channel, start time, streaming for June 19
