When the Pittsburgh Steelers win a game this season, they often win ugly.
That was again the case in Week Seven on the road against the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium as the Steelers stormed back in the fourth quarter from a 17-10 deficit to pick up a 24-17 win. The win was in large part due to some missed field goals from Rams kicker Brett Maher, and some key miscues from Los Angeles offensively that had them kicking themselves after the game.
Yet, all that matters is that the Steelers won the game to move to 4-2.
That result Sunday has NBC Sports’ Chris Simms dumbfounded as to how the Steelers were outplayed so much by the Rams yet still came up with a win.
Appearing on the latest episode of his podcast “Chris Simms Unbuttoned,” Simms stated that he has no idea how the Steelers were outplayed and yet got the win on the road, or that they seemingly do this time and time again.
“I’ve never seen a team get outplayed more and still win a football game than the Pittsburgh Steelers. That’s what I would say. I mean, they were the lesser team on the field for the good part of the day,” Simms said, according to video via the NFL on NBC’s YouTube page. “I don’t mean that to be disrespectful, but this is like three years in a row. The Steelers have been outplayed by the Rams, outplayed by the Browns and outplayed by the Ravens and won all three football games.
“I’ve never seen anything like it. That goes back to last year, Big Ben’s last year of his career. It’s truly incredible.”
It might seem a little ridiculous from Simms for that to be his takeaway coming out of the Steelers’ win, but he’s not entirely wrong. The Steelers were outplayed through the first three quarters of action. Pittsburgh had just six first downs, was 1-for-7 on third downs and had just 110 yards of total offense through the first three quarters.
Pittsburgh’s only touchdown came because of a T.J. Watt interception and return that gave the Steelers’ offense the football inside the 10-yard line, too.
But that’s why you play all 60 minutes. The Steelers exemplify that, especially with the wins over the Cleveland Browns in Week Two, the Baltimore Ravens in Week Five and then the Rams in Week Seven. They made plays when it counted, while the opponent had far too many miscues in big spots, couldn’t execute properly and let the Steelers hang around.
As former NFL defensive end Chris Long stated earlier this year, you can’t let the Steelers hang around. They love the rock fights and head coach Mike Tomlin is great at them. He and his team showed that again on Sunday, doing just enough in the fourth quarter to pick up the win.
It’s a win; that’s all that matters at the end of the day. That’s why the score is kept, rather than trying to decide who should win based off of who looked and played better.
