Week One of the 2023 season feels like a long, long time ago for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
After being thoroughly dominated by the San Francisco 49ers at Acrisure Stadium, the Steelers have reeled off two straight wins over the Cleveland Browns and Las Vegas Raiders, shaking off some of the stink from Week One to move to 2-1 on the season.
As the Steelers are seemingly stacking wins, they are moving up the power rankings across the NFL landscape, too.
Coming out of Sunday night’s 23-18 win in Las Vegas on Sunday Night Football against the Raiders, the Steelers moved up five spots in both The Athletic and CBS Sports’ Power Rankings Tuesday morning. The Steelers moved up just one spot in NFL.com’s Power Rankings Tuesday.
The Steelers now sit at No. 11 in CBS Sports’ Power Rankings compiled by Pete Prisco and sit at No. 12 in The Athletic’s Power Rankings compiled by Josh Kendall.
In Prisco’s rankings, the Steelers find themselves between the Detroit Lions at No. 10 and the Browns at No. 12, two rather good teams early in the season. Of course, the Steelers have a win over the Browns so far.
“They are 2-1 thanks to the defense. But at least the offense and Kenny Pickett showed some life against the Raiders,” Prisco writes regarding the Steelers’ ranking in his power rankings Tuesday for CBSSports.com.
The Steelers certainly are 2-1 thanks to their defense, and that’s not exactly a knock. The Steelers built up that side of the football to play a certain style, and even without star defensive lineman Cameron Heyward in the lineup the Steelers have been dominant the last two weeks defensively, forcing seven turnovers in Weeks Two and Three combined.
Pittsburgh’s defense stole the game against the Browns in Week Two on Monday Night Football thanks to a pick-six from outside linebacker Alex Highsmith and a fumble return for a touchdown from T.J. Watt. In Week Three the Steelers picked off Las Vegas quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo three times.
Those turnovers have either led directly to points on their own or helped create solid field position for the Steelers, which has helped an offense that has been stuck in the mud through the first three weeks of the season.
Though the Steelers’ offense showed signs of life on Sunday night, there are still plenty of issues coming out of the win over the Raiders, especially based on the way the Steelers played late in the game. They ran 13 plays for just 20 yards in their final four possessions of the night, allowing the Raiders to get back into the game.
In Kendall’s power rankings, he has the Steelers at No. 12 and remains a bit concerned with Pickett moving forward, giving the Steelers’ quarterback a QB Confidence Rating of 4. Outside of Tampa Bay and quarterback Baker Mayfield at No. 15, Pickett has the lowest QB Confidence Rating on teams in the top 15.
“The Steelers are winning because of their defense, not because of Kenny Pickett. He was crisp enough Sunday (16-for-28 for 235 yards and two touchdowns) but his offensive EPA per drop back (minus-.25) is worse than Sam Howell, Bryce Young, Justin Fields and Desmond Ridder, among others,” Kendall writes.
Pickett was rather solid on Sunday night. He hit a handful of big throws, looked good on the move in the second half and generally played well for Pittsburgh’s offense, which had good balance overall for the first time in the 2023 season.
The Expected Points Added (-.25) per drop-back from Pickett is a bit of a concern, especially with him being behind names like Howell, Fields and Ridder, two of whom are part of the same draft class as Pickett.
The good news is the offense showed signs of life on Sunday night and had some positivity to build upon moving forward.
In the NFL.com power rankings, the Steelers moved up to No. 16 overall, up from No. 17 last week. The Steelers still remain behind the likes of the Los Angeles Chargers, New Orleans Saints and Jacksonville Jaguars in Eric Edholm’s rankings.
“Both the offense and defense showed signs of improvement in the win over the Raiders. The defense let Davante Adams carve it up, with some of his catches wholly unimpeded. That’s concerning. But the Steelers took Josh Jacobs out of the game, holding him to 62 rushing yards on 17 touches, and they forced Jimmy Garoppolo into enough mistakes that Las Vegas was limited to 18 points,” Edholm writes regarding the Steelers’ ranking. “And while coordinator Matt Canada surely still faces ire from some fans, the offensive design Sunday looked far better (even with that early fullback stuff) than it had previously. Kenny Pickett threw more in-rhythm and found lesser-used targets — Calvin Austin III and Pat Freiermuth — for big plays while George Pickens received the star-receiver defensive treatment by the Raiders. And now Pittsburgh is 2-1 after a terrible Week 1.”
Sunday was a positive sign for the Steelers in all three phases. The offense shook off a slow start — it had two straight three-and-outs — to hit a big 72-yard touchdown from Pickett to Calvin Austin III, the run game got going and was consistent throughout the night, and the defense really got after Jimmy Garoppolo, sacking him four times, generating countless pressures and recording three interceptions.
It was a step in the right direction for the Steelers, but more is still needed. The offensive woes late in the game were concerning as the Steelers ran 13 plays for just 20 yards after the impressive six-play, 81-yard drive that was capped by Pat Freiermuth’s 13-yard touchdown to finish a drive that was one of the best of the Matt Canada tenure.
We’ll see how they build off it entering Week Four against the Houston Texans on the road.
