The receipts from offseason doubters of the Pittsburgh Steelers would resemble that of a lengthy CVS receipt. All of the projection models were predicting a losing season, and many pundits had them finishing in third or even fourth place in the AFC North.
Kyle Brandt thinks that the Steelers’ Week 3 win and 3-0 record should served as a wake-up call to the rest of the league.
“The Steelers’ defense is not a great story. It’s a terrible, horrifying story. You wanna come down from the stands as a mother and take your children off the field when you play against them, and I wouldn’t blame you,” Brandt said on NFL Network’s Good Morning Football this morning. “I told you guys, it doesn’t matter. Stop doubting the Steelers, you idiots. They’re gonna win the division. Watch the Steelers go to the Super Bowl. I’m telling you.”
It has been an offensive league for a couple decades now as rule changes, scheme changes, and the talent at quarterback and wide receiver have reached new highs. But the league is cyclical, and the pendulum seems to be swinging back toward defenses and physical, run-first offenses.
As scoring is down leaguewide, the Steelers are leading the charge with one of the stingiest defenses of the last two decades. Here’s a fun one from Brandt: the Steelers haven’t allowed 10 or fewer points in three-straight games to start the season in 50 years. The last example came in 1973 when guys like Mean Joe Greene were on the field.
“They’re wrecking people. It’s so fun to watch,” Brandt said. “You watch Steelers games, they don’t go to RedZone very much, if you watch on RedZone, ’cause the other team is never in the red zone.”
Pending the last two games being played today on Monday Night Football, the Steelers have the No. 1 scoring defense and the No. 1 overall defense in points and yards per game allowed. They are allowing 8.7 points per game with strong efforts against guys like Kirk Cousins and Justin Herbert. They are the only team remaining with single-digit points against per game, and somehow allowed minus-5 yards the entire second half against the Los Angeles Chargers.
While the defense is leading the way, the offense is showing signs of opening the floodgates. The Steelers exploded for 234 net yards in the second half and put up 20 points while ending the game in victory formation on the 1-yard line.
Meanwhile, the rest of the AFC North have just two total wins with the Cincinnati Bengals still to play on Monday Night Football.
If the 2-0 Steelers still had any doubters, the 3-0 Steelers have silenced that crowd after another dominant performance in Week 3.
