When it comes to the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2020, there are two themes in particular that stick out. The one that is most obvious is the fact that they are ‘perfect’, in terms of their record, undefeated at 7-0. The other theme is the fact that they have been far from perfect when it comes to the actual substance, or more accurately the consistency, of their product on the field.
The thing is, you won’t find a bigger group of Steelers fans who more strongly and passionately agrees with that than the Steelers themselves, and that’s not just limited to the men in the locker room. That goes for the coaches as well.
Randy Fichtner, for example, offered pretty strong comments regarding what he views is his offense’s potential and how far they are from having reached it. “The whole group, it might take a little bit of time to get all of them together and playing”, he admitted, via a transcript. “I don’t think we’ve even come close to playing near our best football game. I think we’ve put together a couple quarters here, a half here”.
I doubt there is a Steelers fan that disagrees with this. The game against the Cleveland Browns is certainly by far the closest that they have come to playing a complete game, and really, you can argue that they did accomplish that, even if the offense wasn’t terribly efficient beyond the scoreboard (which is off course what matters).
Ben Roethlisberger himself issued a tone very similar to Fichtner when speaking to reporters on Wednesday. “Offensively, I don’t think we are playing as well as the potential that we could be”, he said. “That’s encouraging that we can, one, rely on our defense, and we can still win football games not playing at our best. If we were playing our best football right now, then I would be a little bit more concerned”.
“I feel and I think a lot of guys offensively feel that we still can keep getting better, and we want to get better”, he added. “It starts with me. I need to play better football. We will just keep trying to do that. We are playing some really good teams, obviously two really good defenses the last two weeks and a team this week that is opportunistic and turning the ball over”.
The Cowboys actually have only seven takeaways on the season, which is among the fewest in the NFL, and their 18 giveaways are the most. This would probably be a good game to build up that turnover differential after breaking even over the past two weeks.
