Steelers Now
Throughout the offseason, the general consensus was that the AFC North was going to be an absolute bloodbath. Except here we are in late October, and there’s a real argument to be made that this is the worst division in all of football. Be that as it may, someone has to come out on top, and the last team standing will be the lucky recipient of a home playoff game. Then who knows what can happen, right? Once you get into the dance, it’s all about matchups, and who can get red-hot at the right time.
Over the past two weeks, things have gotten a lot more interesting in the standings. The Pittsburgh Steelers (4-3) have seen their lead dwindle after a primetime loss to the Cincinnati Bengals (3-4) and the Baltimore Ravens ripping off back-to-back wins. With chaos sure to ensue over the second half of the season, let’s talk through each franchise’s best path forward to coming away with the title belt when it’s all said and done.
In order for Mike Tomlin’s club to even have the chance to play meaningful football games in January, they’ve got to find a way to stop the bleeding defensively. The Steelers are allowing 143 yards per game on quick throws of under 2.5 seconds per NGS, the most in the league by a healthy margin. Their struggles can be attributed to a multitude of reasons (underachieving personnel, schematic predictability, continued miscommunications), but the fact remains that opposing offenses have been able to neutralize their greatest strength, the pass rush, by getting the ball out quickly. Solving this predicament won’t be easy, but it sits alone at the top of their priority list.
Even though they fell short of their historic aspirations as a collective, if they can get back to being merely competent, that might still be good enough to sneak in. Even through the struggles, they currently rank 10th in yards per attempt when they’re able to generate heat on the quarterback. They just need more opportunities. Aaron Rodgers has provided them with stability on the other side of the ball, and along with a steady run game, the offense has actually overachieved up to this point. If Pittsburgh collapses again down the stretch, it will feel like a missed opportunity given how Arthur Smith’s troops have competed.
For the third time in the Zac Taylor era, Joe Burrow has been struck by the injury bug and put their playoff hopes in serious jeopardy. Trading for 40-year-old Joe Flacco is a move that has actually given them an injection of life, and under his command, they’ve averaged over 35 in his two starts. He’s been around the game long enough to know that sometimes we make this game a little more difficult than it needs to be, and if you simply throw the ball to one of the best players in the world, good things will happen. Case in point, Ja’Marr...
