Some might call the Pittsburgh Steelers frauds. Some might call them the luckiest football team on the planet. Regardless of people’s feelings, the Steelers are 6-3 after beating the Green Bay Packers 23-19 on Sunday. That puts them in second place in the AFC North standings and currently in fifth place in the conference. They are in the thick of the playoff race and they hold the tiebreaker over both the division-leading Baltimore Ravens and the Cleveland Browns.
Evidently, former NFL player and NFL.com analyst Bucky Brooks would fall more on the lucky side of the spectrum. On Monday’s episode of Move the Sticks, he and host Daniel Jeremiah broke down the Steelers’ win over Green Bay. Brooks had some thoughts on how Pittsburgh got to 6-3.
“Mike Tomlin continues to pull these rabbits out of hats,” Brooks said. “I don’t know how he does it, but they’re 6-3 and it’s probably one of the biggest miracles that I’ve ever seen.”
That would certainly sound like Brooks is fully on the side of the Steelers being absolutely lucky with Tomlin the ultimate magician. He even doubles down on that, but he also offers some grounded thoughts on what Pittsburgh is actually doing well to get to this point a bit earlier in the conversation.
“They find a way to win without gaining more yards than their opponent,” Brooks said. “It is the biggest magic trick that we have seen. If they can hold the opponent to under 22 points, they find a way to win… They committed in this game to running the football and made life easier for Kenny Pickett. If they’re going to be this defensive-led team and they can run the football, they can make life miserable because they can get the game into the fourth quarter, and they have shown that they are very comfortable in these uncomfortable moments.”
They continue to show an incredible ability to give up more yards than they gain yet find themselves in a position to win the vast majority of their games in the fourth quarter. A big part of that lately has been the play of QB Kenny Pickett who currently has the longest active streak of passes without throwing an interception in the league. It also is thanks to the rediscovery of the running game.
The Steelers had their best rushing effort the previous game all season with 166 yards on the ground, then topped it on Sunday with 205 rushing yards. As Brooks points out, the combination of a defense that creates turnovers (five multi-turnover games this season) and a ball-control offense that can put up big yardage regardless of whether the defense knows it’s coming will make things rough on teams. That will only get worse for opponents the further the season progresses and especially in the playoffs.
