The Steelers sit at 4-3 as they prepare to take on the visiting Tennessee Titans Thursday night, fresh off a tough loss at home to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Pittsburgh still remains in a good spot with a winning record, something the team couldn’t say at this point last season after starting 2-6 before its bye week.
Still, the Steelers’ wins haven’t been convincing, beating the Browns, Raiders, Ravens, and Rams in one-possessions games in rather ugly fashion. Jeff Saturday, on the latest edition of ESPN’s Get Up, said that unless they are getting a lot of help from the opposing team, it’s going to be tough for the Steelers to come out of any game on top given the state of their offense.
“Blame [Kenny] Pickett or whoever you want, whatever it is. Unless you beat yourself, it’s tough to lose to the Steelers at this point because their offense, that’s a spooky thing,” Saturday said on Get Up, which aired live on ESPN.
When you go back through Pittsburgh’s victories, you see instances where the opposing team did give the Steelers a good amount of help. The Browns turned the ball over four times, two of which Pittsburgh’s defense took back to the house for touchdowns. The Raiders threw three interceptions, including a bad one at the end of the game to CB Levi Wallace to seal the win. Baltimore’s receivers dropped numerous passes in the contest and QB Lamar Jackson threw a bad interception to CB Joey Porter Jr. in the end zone when the Ravens could have put the nail in the Steelers’ coffin. Matt Stafford threw a costly interception to OLB T.J. Watt at the start of the second half, turning the momentum in Pittsburgh’s favor as that turnover sparked the offense.
Even last week against the Jaguars, we saw the Jaguars almost beat themselves with three turnovers (although Coach Mike Tomlin believes they weren’t of high enough quality to impact the game as the team needed). The only games that the Steelers didn’t receive notable help from the other team resulted in blowout losses to the 49ers and Texans, as their sluggish offense never could get going and their defense eventually broke down, having no rest or momentum on its side.
The offense has been the Achilles’ heel for this team for several seasons now, holding the Steelers back from legitimately competing with the top teams in the AFC. Like Saturday said, you can blame QB Kenny Pickett, OC Matt Canada, or the offensive line, but the whole unit is underperforming. It’s causing Pittsburgh to rely on numerous takeaways by its defense as well as the opposing team making costly mistakes to squeak out a close win, and three of the four teams Pittsburgh has beaten have losing records.
It’s on the offensive players and coaches to take a long look in the mirror and identify what they are and what they can do well. WRs George Pickens and Diontae Johnson in the passing game are a formidable duo and the running game has shown flashes with Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren. Establishing more of a presence on the ground could go a long way toward opening up Pittsburgh’s offense as a whole, something the Steelers need in a desperate way as they prepare to go into the second half of the season.
