The Pittsburgh Steelers win ugly. They’re not blowing teams out, and they’re not winning high-scoring affairs. They’ve gotten outgained in every game this season, but they’re still 6-3. It’s ugly football, but it’s winning football for Pittsburgh. Today, the Steelers won thanks to two late interceptions, one in the end zone by Keanu Neal and one in the end zone by Damontae Kazee on the final play of the game. Defensive lineman Cameron Heyward praised the defense for stepping up, and despite allowing a lot of chunk gains and not always being in the position to win, he said there’s a lot of beauty in what the Steelers are doing.
“It’s a multitude of guys stepping up in those moments. Is it pretty? No, not always. But in the ugliness of it, there’s a lot of beauty. It allows us to relish those moments and allow us to cherish when the game’s on the line,” Heyward said via video posted to Steelers.com.
For Steelers fans and their heart health, there isn’t a lot of cherishing or relishing going on late in games when the score is close, as it has been for much of the season. But the Steelers have an innate ability to come up in the clutch and find a way to win the game, whether they’re on offense or defense late. It really is remarkable just how many close games the Steelers play, and how they manage to win those close games so often.
The question is just how sustainable the method of winning is. You could point to the fact that they’re beating teams like the Green Bay Packers and the Tennessee Titans who have struggled on offense in recent weeks. But it’s hard to discount the fact that they’ve also beaten the AFC North-leading Baltimore Ravens and the Cleveland Browns in close, ugly games.
Pittsburgh hasn’t had a lot of playoff success recently, with its last playoff win coming in 2016. The AFC is loaded this season, and if the Steelers can’t consistently put points on the board to not win close and ugly, we’ll see if they can do enough to actually make some noise in the playoffs this season.
The next two weeks will be a great test for Pittsburgh. They have the Browns in Cleveland next week before heading to Cincinnati to take on the Bengals, and those two division games will give us a good idea if the Steelers are for real. It’s impressive that they’re 6-3 right now, and it’s impressive just how good they are in close games. But to win close games, they have to play well enough to make the game close and keep up with the opposing offense. We’ll see if that’s something they can do over the next two weeks and if they can look to gain some ground on their fellow AFC North opponents.
