Do you remember that time that the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense was actually good? You know, just a couple of months ago? Too bad it didn’t count.
As you might recall, the Steelers moved the ball proficiently during the preseason with their first-team offense. Over three games, QB Kenny Pickett led five touchdown drives on just five total possessions. He stepped up and made the plays that needed to be made.
Yet virtually none of that actually carried over into the regular season. These days they uncork the champagne whenever they get a first down by the end of the first quarter. Even those in the locker room get it. But TE Pat Freiermuth still sees that preseason display as (relatively) attainable.
“It’s going to be awesome to get all of our people back”, he told reporters yesterday, via Teresa Varley for the team’s website. He is one of those injured players returning after missing the team’s last game. “Hopefully we can get back to the form we were in camp. We’re all looking forward to it”.
Hope springs eternal, but usually fruitlessly. I don’t suspect there is anybody outside of that building who realistically anticipates a significant level of improvement from the offense to any degree that could resemble what the Steelers did in the preseason.
And we should have known better even then, of course, but you only have what you have to go on. Even though they were playing against backups without a game plan, the offense did look very good. It simply wasn’t regular-season football.
But to compare that to what the offense has been over the first five games—that wasn’t predictable, either. They have been remarkably bad, with only smatterings here and there of competence. They have largely been saved by, aside from their defense, the occasional big play, with three touchdowns of 40-plus yards already after having zero last season.
Were it not for those game-changing plays—and of course they cannot be written off—we could be talking about a winless team, or at least a 1-4 team. From the blocking to the throwing to the running to the passing and everything else, all has been deficient, and yet the Steelers have a winning record.
Strange but true, especially when you consider the fact that the Steelers also rank 20th in points allowed per game, allowing teams to score an average of 22 points while only scoring under 16 per game. They have 79 points for, including two touchdowns, and 110 against.
It’s hard to fathom a team with a minus-31 points differential through five games having a winning record, even if only at 3-2, but that’s the Steelers for now. They lost by a combined 60-13 in two games, but all their wins have been in one-score games. Ther largest margin of victory was just before the bye, a 17-10 win over the Baltimore Ravens.
