Winners and losers from Pittsburgh Steelers' win over Washington Commanders

LANDOVER, Md. — The Pittsburgh Steelers went on the road to face the Washington Commanders and came out with an impressive 28-27 win over a 7-2 team. However, the team went through ups and downs in the game, so who came out of it a winner, and who is going to the losers list?

Winner: George Pickens

Try to find someone who makes as many insane, impactful plays each week as George Pickens does for the Steelers. It is tough to find a wide receiver with Pickens’s skill set, and he has upgraded considerably in the route running and yards after catch departments since last season.

Yet, the amazing body control is still there. How else will he make an absurd twirling grab for the game’s opening touchdown? He would not have, and the fact is that Pickens is demanding WR1 attention.

Consistently throughout the game, the Commanders would roll a player over the top of him to essentially double team him. On his huge 34-yard slant route, it did not matter because Pickens split that double team anyway. He keeps playing well, and Pickens is ascending into the next tier of wide receivers.

Loser: Joey Porter Jr.

It was a tough day for Joey Porter Jr. at the office. He had three penalties called against him and consistently struggled to hold Terry McLaurin at bay. Some of the penalties that Porter committed did not need to happen.

Porter is an immensely talented player who has great flashes of games, but he has inconsistency throughout his tape that raises enough concern to be worried, especially with Donte Jackson down with an injury.

Winner: Patrick Queen

Queen played with his hair on fire. This is probably the best pure linebacker tape that Queen has put out throughout his inaugural season with the Steelers. He flew from sideline to sideline, called the defense extremely well, and made impact plays in a downhill scheme.

The Steelers sent five or more rushers on 19 plays this week, their highest of the season by far. Queen looked right at home in the downhill, attacking style of defense.

Loser: James Pierre

This was a really tough day for James Pierre. His drop on the fake punt, which was an excellent call, is the first step towards making the day go downhill. However, Pierre struggled mightily once he replaced Jackson. While he is back and had just a limited role in sub-packages, if Jackson can not play, it would not be crazy to consider Cam Sutton there as a player.

Cory Trice is fitting to come back and could start upon return. Either way, this was not good enough at any stage for Pierre.

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