The Pittsburgh Steelers are 6-2 on the midpoint of the season, their finest mark since 2020. They’ve solely completed at the very least 6-2 by means of eight video games twice since 2018, together with this 12 months. However how good is that this Steelers staff, actually, particularly on offense? Former Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger needs to see them examined extra earlier than making any proclamations.
“How good are the defenses that we’ve performed to this point?”, Roethlisberger mentioned of the Steelers on his Footbahlin podcast. “They’ve been down some DBs, they’ve been skinny within the secondary. What’s gonna occur when abruptly we play a staff that’s received a extremely good secondary, that’s received an amazing go rush? They’ll double a man, or possibly not double George [Pickens] and put a extremely good man on [Calvin] Austin [III]”.
Of the 9 groups remaining with two or fewer losses, the Steelers rank low on the checklist in power of schedule and power of victory. Their three consecutive wins over two-win groups did these marks no favors, to be truthful. However on the identical time, the higher groups they’ve overwhelmed are higher now than once they performed them.
In Week 1, the Steelers had been getting a Kirk Cousins recent off a serious damage with a brand new staff. Then they confronted a rookie QB in Bo Nix making his second ever begin, and he has performed higher since. The Los Angeles Chargers misplaced QB Justin Herbert in-game, who was already harm. And that’s simply speaking concerning the breaks the Steelers have caught from opposing quarterbacks. But that labored towards them once they performed the Indianapolis Colts.
“I simply need to pump the brakes slightly bit, simply because we don’t know what we’re gonna get once we face a extremely good protection”, Roethlisberger mentioned of the Steelers. “However they’re doing what they should do proper now, and that’s all that issues”.
The factor is, as we’ve recognized because the NFL launched the schedule, the Steelers play the harder groups now. They play the Baltimore Ravens twice, plus the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles. Whereas the opposite AFC North groups look much less threatening than they could have again in Could, the Washington Commanders are a major risk.
The Chiefs, Eagles, and Commanders all rank within the high 10 in scoring protection, by the way in which. Surprisingly, the Ravens are all the way in which down in twenty sixth place beneath a brand new defensive coordinator. However the Steelers even have to fret about maybe probably the most harmful offense Baltimore has ever had.
I do suppose most Steelers followers perceive that they’ve had a softer schedule up up to now. They’ve additionally benefited from some damage luck, although so have their opponents towards them. Technically talking, they had been with out their beginning quarterback for a lot of the season. That looks like a much bigger deal now than it did two weeks in the past.
