“Game Of His Life” tells the story of Pittsburgh athletes who may not have had the most illustrious, Hall of Fame level careers, but had one absolutely amazing game. In today’s edition, Jaylen Samuels.

This is one of my favorite Steeler games of all time. Pittsburgh’s football team beating the big bad New England Patriots against all odds. A disaster of a team that had been flailing for a month had rallied and beaten Tom Brady. 

And no one had a bigger, and more unexpected, performance than Jaylen Samuels. 

While Jaylen Samuels may not have had the most illustrious NFL career, he did spend four years in the show, and no night could have been bigger for him than a cold December night in Pittsburgh during his rookie season. 

The Backstory

I’ve written about this iteration of the Steelers before, and honestly there were so many things that happened that year that I could write forever. It’s the most interesting team to write about, albeit for all the wrong reasons. 

I think most Steeler fans will remember how much of a chaotic mess the 2018 Pittsburgh Steelers were, but not as many might remember the situation heading into the game against the Patriots in 2018, so allow me to set the stage. 

After going 7-2-1 in the first 10 games of the season, the Steelers are absolutely collapsing. In Week 12, the Steelers dropped a game against the 4-6 Broncos in Denver. In Week 13, they blew a 16 point lead and lost on a game-winning Los Angeles Chargers field goal. And in Week 14, they lost in Oakland to the 2-10 Raiders. 

Starting running back James Conner (in because of Le’Veon Bell’s year-long contract holdout) was injured in the Chargers game, forcing the Steelers’ 5th round pick in the offseason’s draft, Jaylen Samuels, to start. 

Samuels had started the game against the Raiders, but rushed a measly 28 yards on 11 carries. However, he did catch 7 passes for 64 yards. 

The Steelers now sat at 7-5-1, and with a game at home against Tom Brady and the New England Patriots, a once promising season looked doomed. 

Samuels and former Patriot Stevan Ridley would team up to be the RB duo for the most important game of the season. 

Maybe some optimistic fans could have predicted a Steelers win, but nobody could have predicted the night that Samuels would have in just his second career NFL start. 

The Game

Pittsburgh had won the coin toss, and opted to receive the ball first. It was a cold, 42 degree night when 65,000+ fans watched as the Steelers opened the game. 

It was a tightly contested affair throughout, never being more than a one-possession game. 

Samuels’ first action came on the fourth snap of the drive, rushing for 6 yards. The very next play, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger gave him the ball again, where Samuels exploded for a 25 yard gain up the field. 

These two plays alone had already topped the 28 rushing yards Samuels recorded in his first start. 

The second run had gotten the Steelers into New England territory early, and Samuels would soon after catch a pass to put the Steelers at goal-to-go range. Ben would complete the drive with a touchdown pass to tight end Vance McDonald for the game’s opening score.

Almost immediately, however, Tom Brady throws a deep ball to a wide open Chris Hogan and ties the game at 7. 

On the next Pittsburgh drive, Samuels recorded a 10 yard run, but two Patriot sacks on Ben would end the drive relatively quickly. 

Samuels would not see the ball again till midway through the second quarter, after the Steelers completed a 92 yard touchdown drive that featured 9 pass attempts in a row by Ben, capping it off with a 17 yard touchdown reception to Antonio Brown. 

Samuels ripped off a 17 yard run on a good-looking drive before a pass was picked off by New England’s Duron Harmon. 

In total, Samuels ran for 70 yards as the game entered halftime with the Steelers leading 14-7. 

Starting off the second half, Pittsburgh was able to stop New England’s opening drive and get the ball back. Samuels had quickly shown that the first half was no fluke, ripping off a 14 yard run on the ensuing Steelers drive. 

But his efforts could not end in points on this drive, as kicker Chris Boswell had missed a 32 yard field goal attempt that kept the game at 14-7. 

Meanwhile, the Patriots successfully made a kick, which tightened the game at 14-10. 

But New England still had no answer for the rookie Samuels, who on Pittsburgh’s next dive ran three straight times for 6, 15, and 4 yards, setting up the Steelers at midfield before Duron Harmon secured his second interception of the night and gave the Patriots the ball back. 

Luckily, however, Joe Haden would take the ball right back soon after, giving the Steelers a chance to put the game out of reach midway through the fourth quarter. Samuels tacked on 28 more rushing yards as the Steelers desperately tried to put a third touchdown on the board. 

The Steelers, from once again deep in their own territory, began to march down the field, and Samuels was still invincible. 

On a huge third down, Samuels was left wide open as he caught a 20 yard pass to keep the drive alive. The play itself was amazing, but it’s made even better by somebody’s voice audibly screaming “NO!” as he catches the ball. On the very next play, Samuels breaks free for a 15 yard run, sending the crowd into a frenzy. 

The Steelers pushed midway into New England territory before a third down deep shot to JuJu Smith-Schuster was successfully broken up by New England’s J.C. Jackson, setting up a 48 yard field goal attempt for Boswell. 

Boswell was just 3 for 8 from between 40 and 49 yards when he was able to knock through a field goal to put the game at 17-10. 

The Steelers defense, after falling apart the past three weeks to lose games, stepped up to stop a last-ditch effort by Brady and the New England offense, and Pittsburgh was victorious, 17-10. 

Samuels finished the night with 142 rushing yards on 19 carries, averaging 7.5 yards a carry. In addition to that, he added 30 receiving yards on 2 catches. 

His rushing totals in the game placed second in franchise history for a rookie in one game, just 4 yards shy of Bam Morris’ record set in 1994. 

His heroic efforts in helping bring home the win also earned him the NFL’s Rookie of the Week honors, the first time a Steeler had the honor since Le’Veon Bell in 2013. 

The Aftermath

His performance against the Patriots would undoubtedly be the best of his career. However, while he was legendary, the game would sadly end up meaning nothing. 

With James Conner still out with injury, Samuels got the start again in Week 16 against the 12-2 New Orleans Saints, a firefight in which the Steelers ultimately lost 31-28. Samuels recorded just 53 rushing yards on 12 carries, far from what he was able to do a week prior. 

The Steelers would find themselves rooting for, of all teams, the Cleveland Browns, in the final week of the season to push Pittsburgh into the postseason. However, Cleveland would lose in their game to Baltimore, sending the Ravens to the playoffs and the Steelers home, where they got to watch the Patriots, because they are the Patriots, win another Super Bowl.

As for his career as a whole, Samuels would spend two more years with the Steelers, starting 4 games in 2019 and 1 in 2020. He remained behind Conner and others on the depth chart. 

He was never able to replicate the performance against the Patriots, and the highest rushing yard total he would put up after 2018 was just 32 yards. He was also used as the makeshift quarterback in the Steelers’ wildcat offense, a scheme that rarely worked. 

In 2021, Samuels was waived in the final round of preseason cuts, but was signed to the practice squad the next day. He remained there until October 27, 2021, when Pittsburgh released him. 

Two days later, he would join the practice squad of the Houston Texans, appearing in three games for the team but hardly getting any snaps. 

Today he is a free agent, and while he may not have had the most illustrious NFL career, his performance against New England should never be forgotten. 

(Photo by Joe Sargent/Getty Images)