Things turned pretty ugly quite fast against the San Francisco 49ers for the Pittsburgh Steelers at Acrisure Stadium in the first season opener at home since the 2014 season.
It’s not the way the Steelers wanted things to go — at all. An offense that showed so much promise in the preseason fell flat on its face and couldn’t throw or run the football against one of the best defenses in the league, and a star-studded defense couldn’t stop San Francisco’s high-powered attack, resulting in an ugly 30-7 loss at home.
Now, the Steelers open AFC North play in Week Two at home on Monday Night Football against the Cleveland Browns. Cleveland is riding high coming off of a dominant 24-3 win over the Cincinnati Bengals in Week One, holding Joe Burrow and the Bengals to just 82 passing yards. The Browns are also favored entering the Week Two matchup against Pittsburgh.
Good Morning Football’s Kyle Brandt still believes in the Black and Gold though. For a segment Friday morning picking which team could pull off a Week Two upset, Brandt was quick to highlight the Steelers.
“Pittsburgh, come on. That wasn’t you, fam. Let’s just flush it. I spent the whole offseason saying ‘Guys, trust Pittsburgh.’ Blah, blah, blah. That’s okay! It’s okay. It’s not okay to lose this one when you’re going against Cleveland, who is getting all the respect,” Brandt said, according to video via NFL.com. “Kenny [Pickett], Mike [Tomlin], T.J. [Watt], George [Pickens] not look[ing] too happy on the bench, Minkah [Fitzpatrick], Cam [Heyward] got hurt. Pittsburgh…come on guys. That wasn’t you, and we know it. Just reassure us.”
It’s a big matchup for the Steelers, one that they have historically dominated. This isn’t your father’s Cleveland Browns though, and they showed that again in Week One. The defense is loaded and led by star pass rusher Myles Garrett along with two very good cornerbacks in Denzel Ward and Martin Emerson that head coach Mike Tomlin praised profusely during his press conference Tuesday.
Add in a new defensive coordinator in Jim Schwartz and the unit is even more fearsome.
Offensively, Cleveland is still a run-heavy team and has a new element to the run game with quarterback Deshaun Watson more comfortable in the scheme.
For the Steelers, they harped on the lack of communication and not wanting to change anything from a planning perspective because they failed to execute. There will be a massive onus on them showing that was the case in Week One, rather than a flaw in the preparation and planning portion from the coaching staff.
The talent is there on both sides of the football for the Steelers to be a very good team in 2023. They certainly didn’t look like one in Week One. Brandt noted in earlier in the week that Week One is a pathological liar. Here’s hoping that the performance in Week One was just a lie from the Steelers, rather than the offseason hype and belief in the Steelers being a lie overall.
