If your mother raised you right or you had a proper education as a child, chances are you have read the fabled tale of Jack and the Beanstalk. The story goes that Jack takes the family cow to market and trades it for some magic beans that end up growing into a giant beanstalk that soars into the clouds, finding a castle in the sky where he finds himself some golden eggs… as well as an angry giant.
Put the rest of the story aside and focus on the beanstalk for a second. Jack’s family ridiculed him for purchasing the magic beans which seemed like just ordinary beans to the average eye, but ultimately turned into quite the opportunity for him and his family. Appearances can be deceiving, and that’s the reference that CBS Sports’ Will Brinson uses when describing the current state of the Pittsburgh Steelers offense, picking Pittsburgh to beat the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday.
“It’s my favorite thing going on in the NFL right now, and it’s just working,” Brinson said about the Steelers’ offense on video from CBS Sports Network’s Twitter page. “I don’t have a great explanation for why I’m taking Pittsburgh other than they are in possession of magic beans right now and seem to find a way to win these football games. They’re a fraudulent 4-2, but I think they may be a fraudulent 5-2 after this weekend.”
When you look at the nature of Pittsburgh’s wins to date, you can see why Brinson calls this team a “fraudulent” 4-2 squad. They have a point differential of -24 on the season, rank second-to-last in the league in offensive yards, and third-to-last in the league in yards allowed on defense. Their offense normally takes at least a half to generate some form of life while their defense is allowing over 140 rushing yards a game and multiple receivers to go over 120+ yards on them this year.
Still, somehow Pittsburgh manages to catch lightning in a bottle seemingly every weekend, winning in the fourth quarter against the Baltimore Ravens who just blew out a talented Lions team last week as well as the Los Angeles Rams, coming alive in the second half thanks to a crucial T.J. Watt interception. Brinson’s colleague Adam Schein also picked Pittsburgh to win, calling for Watt’s status as a game wrecker to be the reason Pittsburgh stands in the winners’ circle on Sunday.
“This feels like the kind of game at home T.J. Watt puts his stamp on it and dominates,” Schein said. “I’m going to roll here with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Steelers have come to embrace head coach Mike Tomlin’s saying that style points don’t matter as long as they win the game. They have the best winning percentage in the league in one-possession games since 2007, truly embracing a never-say-die mentality, no matter how ugly it looks sometimes. There have been moments in the last two contests where it has been flat-out ugly, but Pittsburgh still managed to find a way to come out on top. We saw the offense come alive in the fourth quarter last week in Los Angeles, and maybe this can be the week that they can come out fast from the get-go, attempting to put that fraudulent label to rest.
