Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin spoke to the media Tuesday and made it pretty clear that Pittsburgh “stunk up the joint” in the manner of the way they got it handed to them by San Francisco in a 30-7 loss, getting beat in all phases of the game on offense, defense, and special teams.
Kenny Pickett was a big factor in the offense’s lack of success Sunday as the young quarterback looked scattershot throwing the football, missing receivers on passes he would normally complete while forcing the ball into tight coverage. His struggles led to multiple interceptions that brought drives to a screeching halt while allowing San Francisco to control the clock.
Tomlin was asked about Pickett and his play Sunday and if he thinks that Pickett will be able to bounce back and have a better performance against the Cleveland Browns on Monday Night Football. Tomlin defended his starting quarterback, trusting that Pickett’s dedication to the game will yield positive results after a tough start to the 2023 season.
“There’s football justice. When you work at it, man, you generally get good things that come out of it. This is a guy that’s fully committed. This is a guy that works his tail off, and largely man, those guys create their own fortune,” Tomlin said Tuesday during his weekly press conference via video from the Steelers’ YouTube channel “And so, that’s my general tenor about the trajectory of him and his career, but also in the short term. It’s reasonable to expect guys that work the way he works and prepares the way he prepares to bounce back from negative performance.”
Sunday was not pretty for Pickett as he completed 31-of-46 pass attempts for 232 yards and one touchdown with two interceptions. He was sacked five times and posted a QBR of 23.8, according to Pro Football Reference. He had an adjusted net yards per passing attempt of 3.5 and generated nine first downs through the air against San Francisco.
Pickett struggled to open the season, but that doesn’t have to write the narrative for the 2023 season. Plenty of the top quarterbacks in football struggled Week One with Bills QB Josh Allen throwing one touchdown to three interceptions last night and Bengals QB Joe Burrow attempting 31 passes, but only throwing for 82 passing against the Browns on Sunday. We expect those guys to bounce back to their Pro Bowl/All-Pro selves as the season progresses, so it’s reasonable to expect Pickett to bounce back as well to be more of that poised, steady leader we know him to be after seeing him down the stretch of last season.
Pickett may not be the league’s top breakout player this year, like some media outlets were projecting him to be prior to the start of the season, but he shouldn’t be considered a bust off just one game to start the year. He has shown growth and development since getting thrust into the lineup early last season against the New York Jets and has been diligently working in practices as well as on his own time to get better and be Pittsburgh’s hopeful franchise quarterback. We will get to see Pickett’s first attempt to bounce back next Monday against a Cleveland Browns defense that had its way with the Cincinnati offense, shaping up to be yet another big test for Pickett and the Steelers’ offense.
