Is it possible to be so bad at something that you somehow inadvertently loop all the way around and become good at it? That seems to be how most these days are viewing the Pittsburgh Steelers, who hold substantial points and yardage deficits across the first eight games of the 2023 season and yet have a 5-3 record.
“It’s a magic trick”, Dan Graziano offered during a Friday episode of the Get Up program on ESPN. “There’s no other way to explain it. Football is a ground acquisition game. The point is to gain yards, move the ball forward. In literally every game, they are worse at that than their opponent, and yet they’re somehow 5-3. It makes no sense”.
As you’ve surely seen by now, the Steelers are one of 34 teams in NFL history to be outgained in each of their first eight games. They are the first of those teams to emerge with a winning record. And only one of the previous 33 teams finished the season as a whole with a winning record after being outgained in the first eight contests. That was the 2022 Pittsburgh Steelers.
“They’re literally good at nothing other than winning the game. It’s ridiculous. I don’t see how it’s sustainable but hats off to them for finding a way”, Graziano said.
So, let’s get a little bit more specific. At 5-3, the Steelers have produced 133 points over eight games. Yet they have allowed 163 points, so despite the fact that they win .625 percent of the time, they have only produced 44.9 percent of the points. They’ve been outscored by 30 points overall, including by 57 points total in their three losses.
Likewise, they have allowed more yardage in every game than they have produced on their own, to the tune of very nearly 100 yards per game. Over the first eight games of the season, opponents have produced 790 more yards than they have yielded to the Steelers.
But they play their best when it matters the most. Their yardage output isn’t necessarily all that much better in the fourth quarter, but they’re more apt to make the plays that count when they’re needed, as indicated by the three game-winning drives on the season.
“They don’t play the game well, yet they find a way to win”, Graziano exasperatedly concluded. At least, that’s what they’ve done through eight weeks. And sometimes we do have to put some blame on the defense, too. They rank 30th in yards allowed, but are second in takeaways, so they do a lot of bending but not as much breaking.
In other words, it’s all about opportunities. Step up in the critical moments and you can minimize the impact of everything that takes place in between them. Win the “weighty downs”, as Tomlin would say, and you have a good probability of success.
