The Pittsburgh Steelers may have not erupted with a breakout performance on both sides of the football on Sunday against the Las Vegas Raiders, but we did see this team take notable strides forward.
Pittsburgh’s offense, which struggled mightily to get anything going the first two weeks of the season, showed more signs of life in primetime. QB Kenny Pickett recorded the first multiple passing touchdowns game of his young career while the running game went for over 100 yards as a team for the first time this season. The defense took a step forward too at stopping the run, holding RB Josh Jacobs to 62 yards after getting gashed on the ground the first two weeks of the season.
Speaking to the media at his weekly press conference on Tuesday, head coach Mike Tomlin acknowledged the efforts of several of his players, stating that his team is heading in the right direction.
“We’re getting better,” Tomlin said via video from the Steelers’ YouTube channel. “We better. Everyone better be getting better, regardless on the outcome of games. Obviously, you better do enough to win the games, but there’s some components to the get better. The planning component, the coaching component, the playing component, and then the adjustment component. And we’ve been dealing with all of those things, and everyone does, but I just want to be really clear about everyone still very much being in development, as are we and I saw some signs to build upon in the midst of earning a victory.”
Tomlin provided the perspective that his team is taking the necessary strides forward to become competitive after looking completely lost to start the season, suffering a humiliating loss at home to the San Francisco 49ers. As Tomlin mentioned, this team had to get better, but it’s encouraging to see guys like Pickett showing signs of improvement after a shaky start as well as collective units like the defensive line stopping the run and the offensive line generating more of a push up front.
Getting better transcends just the players executing on the field. It takes better game planning in the lead up to the game on Sunday. It takes the coaching staff having the right schemes and plays in place to put their players in position to be successful on the field. It takes the players properly executing on the field and both the players and coaching staff coming together to make the proper adjustments in-game should they get met with adversity early.
We saw more of all of these components against Las Vegas Sunday night compared to what we saw from Pittsburgh to start the 2023 season. There still need to see notable improvement in various aspects like the secondary doing a better job of minimizing the opposing team’s No. 1 wide receiver, but it’s a positive sign to see this team trending in the right direction after a shaky start.
Tomlin has always done a great job of weathering the storms and keeping his team locked in and bought into the process of competing and getting better, regardless of what the situation may be. We saw this happen last season as Pittsburgh started 2-6 but turned things around to finish with a 9-8 record. The Steelers sit at 2-1 after a tough start to the season and look primed to take that momentum forward this week against the Houston Texans as they look to get their third-straight win.
