Here’s the thing about the NFL:
Success is not measured by whether performance meets a given standard of what competence should look like. Instead, it is determined by the numbers on the scoreboard after 4 quarters against a specific opponent. The Steelers are lucky that the NFL decides their games this way, because even though their level of performance Sunday afternoon at Acrisure Stadium left something to be desired, they were better than the rest of the guys.
Because they were better than the other guys yesterday, they went home with a 17-10 win over the Baltimore Ravens, leaving them at 3-2 as the unlikely leaders of the AFC North.
There was certainly enough going wrong to give the fan base something to complain about, but no matter how bad it looked and how loud it got in Pittsburgh, it had to be worse in Baltimore. The Ravens dropped several passes that should have been caught, lost three gimme points at the end of the first half and then failed to score at all in the second half, had a punt deflected for a safety and were minus-2 in turnover ratio, one of which was an interception in the end zone.
Looking at those same sequences through the black and gold lens, the Steelers showed off as best they could from scrimmage, staying in the fight, using their defense and special teams to hold things together until the offense could get going along with that back-to-back scoring drives in the fourth quarter and benefited from their stars playing like stars in several critical situations and at the right times. This is how many NFL teams win games in October.
“I’m just grateful for the performance, it’s good to go into the bye sitting at the top of the North, especially after everything we’ve been through,” coach Mike Tomlin said. “Still a strong growth and development group. There’s obviously a lot out there that we didn’t like. But that’s life in this business too. Our job is to win and we did business today.”
All of that is true, but so is the fact that the offense continues to score bottom line points. Gaining yards and scoring points is by no means easy in the NFL, but it shouldn’t be as difficult as the Steelers made it out to be. Yes, the offense rebounded by going 49 yards in 9 plays for a 25-yard field goal by Chris Boswell, followed by an 80-yard possession in 8 plays that ended in a touchdown thanks to a 41-yard throw and catch, that was a great NFL game. However, so far the expertise has been limited to snippets, and it needs to become more than just snippets. Better sooner than later.
The half-full perspective is that it was a game against a rival you love to beat, on a perfect day of football, and for three hours it was tense and frustrating and infuriating and exciting, capped off by a happy ending that is a… victory in the NFL regular season. And remember, it ended with a victory over a rival you like to beat.
The quarterback is still learning when is the right time to use his mobility, and the offensive line isn’t always able to stop penetration on running plays, and the wide receivers lack someone who can get into the game with pure route running Offensive can bring (Diontae). Johnson). All legitimate factors, but the immediate task must be to find a way to score more and more often.
Twenty-one points in a game isn’t a particularly high bar in today’s NFL, but the Steelers have done it just seven times in their last 22 games. The formula that left them 3-2 and atop the AFC North Division simply isn’t sustainable over a 17-game regular season, especially not with an offense that has produced five touchdowns in five games
But these Steelers also have some characteristics.
Their defense is opportunistic and dynamic at times. The 4 sacks and 3 takeaways against the Ravens increased the 5 game total to 17 sacks and 11 takeaways. They have some newcomers who have shown they belong and are earning expanded roles as a result. Your placekicker is money. They are very dangerous when standing against a wall. They don’t point fingers. They are teammates.
There are no quick fixes, no white knights looming on the horizon, nothing that can realistically be done at this stage of the process other than work with what they have, and their top players need to bring their A-game to the table.
TJ Watt and Alex Highsmith combined for 3 sacks, 2 passes defensed, 1 forced fumble and 1 fumble recovery against a very slippery opponent in Lamar Jackson. George Pickens had 6 catches for 130 yards (21.7 average); twice he threw critical blocks downfield to give a teammate more distance; he reversed for 16 yards, which was the team’s longest run of the game; and he won a 1-on-1 matchup and turned it into the 41-yard touchdown that provided the game-winning score.
“George had to have a big game,” Tomlin said. “These types of games are hotly contested, there are a lot of one-on-one duels, we’ve been talking about it all week. Often it comes down to one-on-one playmaking, especially on the edge at the end when the going gets tough.” It was a bit tight. That’s why it was important that we stayed committed for 60 minutes and made the right plays at the end, which he did.”
And their quarterback has now scored two crucial fourth-quarter wins against the Ravens – last season in Baltimore in his 11th career start and yesterday in Pittsburgh in his 17th career start. Pickett’s numbers look mundane on a stat sheet, but he’s a player, a fierce competitor, a guy who has many of the intangibles that enable a quarterback to lead a team.
In Houston last week, Pickett suffered a knee injury from a sack in the fourth quarter, but medical testing returned a positive result and he practiced three days later. Pickett told everyone who asked him that he planned to start against the Ravens, and he showed Tomlin and his teammates that he meant business by progressing throughout the week and doing more every day.
When Tomlin was asked Friday before the game whether the combination of injury, bye and his quarterback’s problems on offense led him to give Pickett a week off to reposition himself by watching Mitch Trubisky, this was the answer Answer was final. “Absolutely not. This is a highly competitive business. When he’s healthy enough to play, you send him back there and give that competitor a chance to compete.”
Pickett didn’t shy away from the challenge of a physical game against the Ravens in which he wasn’t at full health, and his performance for most of the three quarters reflected both realities. But he stuck with it. Kept competing. Ultimately, he delivered. And that’s the icing on the cake for this sundae.
“There are ups and downs in the season. There are ups and downs in games,” Pickett said. “We found a way to win in the end; nothing else matters. From an offensive perspective, it’s not nearly as good as it needs to be. We get it – all players do it, all coaches do it. We are working tirelessly to get better and get more points. But at the end of the day we went down and got the “W.” We’re going into the bye week, stay healthy.
They also leave with some important issues to work on and some tools to do so.