The Pittsburgh Steelers have been anything but a conventional football team through five weeks. How can a team that ranks dead last in the league with just five offensive touchdowns through five weeks be 3-2? It just makes no sense.
Logical or not, the Steelers have found ways to win. Bill Simmons even compared them to a famous horror film star on The Bill Simmons Podcast on Wednesday.
“They are the Michael Myers team.” Bill pointed out. “If they can just hang around, they get the other team to make dumb plays at the worst possible times. They get one 40-yard pass at the perfect time. The Steelers are 3-2, they were my big pick before the year and I’ve watched all the games. I have no idea why they are 3-2.”
In two of the Steelers’ three wins, they have pulled the Michael Myers technique to perfection. They hung around for a while and had a series of big plays made mostly by their defense and special teams late to win the game. It’s hard to be 3-2 with a negative 31-point differential without being timely.
The offense has also seemed to be at its best in these moments when they aren’t on a game script, and it’s just dudes going out there and making clutch plays. We saw this on Sunday when Pickett led an eight-play 80-yard drive to give the Steelers a lead. The drive was capped by a 41-yard George Pickens touchdown, and he also had a 21-yard catch earlier in the drive. The Pickett t0 Pickens chemistry has clearly been developing this year. Ben Solak joined Simmons on the podcast and had this to say about the offense.
“In these late games where they have these comebacks, they just end up being in a Kenny Pickett backyard football world and that’s their best version of offense right now.” Solak admitted. “It’s not even that great of a backyard football offense, but it’s better than the standard dropbacks.”
This is all well and good when it works, but there is a distinctive risk to relying on this playstyle to win games. The defense has a lot of pressure on it right now, as it seems like a near-impossible task for this offense to put 20 points on the board right now. The offense seems a little reliant on at least a few splash plays from the defense and special teams over the course of a game right now as well. This can be demoralizing for a defense, especially one that isn’t getting a lot of rest from an offense that struggles to stay on the field.
When it’s working, the Michael Myers routine is fun to watch. And it’s good to know that the Steelers have the ability to win that way. But, much like the Halloween sequels, it’s tough to replicate that magic over and over again, so hopefully the Steelers can find other ways to win in 2023.
