Thanks in large part to some heroic defensive performances, the Pittsburgh Steelers entered Week Eight against the Jacksonville Jaguars sitting at 4-2 on the season and staring down a real opportunity against a good Jaguars team.
That opportunity fizzled out as the Steelers were largely whom everyone thought they were: a poor offensive team that relies too much on a great defense to carry them. And when the defense can’t carry them, they can’t win.
For FS1 analyst and host of The Carton Show, Craig Carton, the Steelers are “a bad football team” and have largely gotten by on smoke and mirrors. He said they shouldn’t be taken seriously after a 20-10 loss to the Jaguars Sunday at Acrisure Stadium.
“No disrespect to your guy Mike Tomlin, but that’s a bad football team,” Carton said to former Steelers offensive lineman Willie Colon, according to video via The Carton Show’s YouTube page. “[Kenny] Pickett got dinged up later in the game, but it don’t matter. The Steelers got to 4-2 with smoke and mirrors and they ran into a team that’s just better than them.”
At this point in the season, with the same issues continuing to pop up time and time again for the Black and Gold, it might be time to consider that the Steelers are just that: a bad football team getting by on smoke and mirrors.
That might be a tough pill to swallow, but it might be the medicine required to deal with some of the frustration this team has provided through the first seven games of the year.
Entering the Week Eight matchup, expectations were high for the Steelers, who had a real opportunity to kick off a three-game homestand in style against a Jaguars team that is legitimately in the AFC contenders conversation. But it was clear — and clear quickly — on Sunday that the Steelers weren’t in the same class as the Jaguars.
Though the Steelers’ defense got a lot of pressure on Jacksonville quarterback Trevor Lawrence and forced some timely turnovers, it wasn’t enough to create shorter fields for the offense. Couple that with the missed opportunities from the Steelers, and the smoke and mirrors just weren’t effective in the 20-10 loss.
Now it’s a short week for the Steelers taking on a Tennessee Titans team coming off of a thrilling 28-23 win over the Atlanta Falcons. Dealing with some key injuries on the short week, the Steelers are going to need to find answers — and fast — to avoid falling to 4-4.
