Madden Monday: Steelers’ upset of Colts ‘goes a long way to them convincing themselves’

The ripple effect from the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 27-20 win over the Indianapolis Colts (7-2) goes beyond the standings.

That’s the view of 105.9 The X’s Mark Madden during this week’s TribLive “Madden Monday” podcast.

Sure. There’s the practical angle of the Steelers (5-3) maintaining a two-game lead on the Baltimore Ravens (3-5) in the AFC North.

But according to Madden, the victory has some significant intangible benefits as well.

“I like (Sunday’s) game. I’m hardly a cockeyed optimist when it comes to the Steelers, but I think it goes a long way to them convincing themselves,” Madden said. “We don’t need to be convinced. They need to convince themselves. I think confidence was really lagging after the last couple of weeks or so. Maybe now they can get pointed in a better direction mentally.”

Certainly, the defense should feel better about itself. After the normally big-play oriented defense went into a shell when it came to sacks and turnovers the last two weeks, that unit generated five sacks, five turnovers and the special teams recorded a sixth on a muffed punt.

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“I don’t feel it was like the New England game, where the Patriots gave the ball away (five times). I thought the Steelers took the ball away more in this game against Indianapolis,” Madden said of the Steelers’ Week 3 win in Foxborough. “I give that Steelers’ defense a ton of credit. They did a great job limiting Jonathan Taylor.”

Indeed. Taylor was the NFL’s leading rusher, entering the game with 850 yards. He walked out of Acrisure Stadium with only 45 yards on 14 attempts. None of his runs were longer than 9 yards. As a team, the Colts ended the day with only 55 yards rushing and a 2.9 yards-per-carry average.

But Madden says it was T.J. Watt’s strip-sack of Daniel Jones in the second quarter that was the biggest play of the game.

TRADEMARK T.J. WATT ????@steelers ball! pic.twitter.com/PN9X5GGhnI

— NFL UK & Ireland (@NFLUKIRE) November 2, 2025

“The T.J. Watt strip-sack turned the game around,” Madden said. “They were down 7-0. The Colts were driving, and that takeaway really reversed the momentum of the entire game, just about irreparably. So I think that defense got tired of being told it (stunk). I’m not saying it was great today. I mean, the Colts were five out of five on fourth down. But the defense did take a big step in the right direction. The Steelers took an even bigger step in the right direction, because I feel this game is valuable currency, this win moving forward.”

Also in the podcast, Madden and I talk about what the loss means from an Indianapolis point of view, the Penguins’ week that was, Game 7 of the World Series and more.