In a lot of ways, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 13-10 loss to the Cleveland Browns on Sunday looked similar to most of their games this season. The defense kept the score low, there wasn’t much going on offensively and it was an ugly affair on both sides for most of the game. The difference on Sunday was that Pittsburgh couldn’t pull off the victory, and now sits at 6-4. Chris Simms said Steelers fans need to get used to ugly games, because that’s how it’s going to be the rest of the season.
“They’ll continue to battle. It’s not gonna change in Pittsburgh. It’s gonna look like this the whole year. They’re 6-4, and every game’s gonna be ugly and muck it up and they’re gonna hope they can outhit you and win the game that way,” Simms said on his Chris Simms Unbuttoned podcast.
The Steelers have more often than not found ways to win ugly. Yesterday, against Cleveland’s defense, which is among the best in the league, that wasn’t the case. An ugly game against the Browns was expected, but the problem with Pittsburgh is games it should win pretty easily, like in Week Nine against the Tennessee Titans or Week 10 against the Green Bay Packers, end up turning ugly.
The Steelers’ offense is bad, a lot worse than most people thought it would be after the preseason, which is turning out to be a mirage. It’s not a sustainable formula to ask the defense, which is now battered and bruised and starting players who were on the practice squad earlier in the week, to hold opposing offenses all game just so the offense can hope to pull a rabbit out of its hat and find a way to win.
Kenny Pickett has been a serious problem this season, and it doesn’t look like he’s going to get better anytime soon. He’s gotten worse as the season has gone on, and he threw for just 106 yards yesterday. Fifth-round rookie Dorian Thompson-Robinson looked like the better quarterback yesterday, and he was the one who got the win. The Steelers might make the playoffs, but if this is how they’re going to play, they’re not going to do anything if they get there. This just isn’t a very good team right now, and it starts with the poor quarterback play.
If the offense was even a smidge better, the Steelers win against Cleveland, and they’d set themselves up to potentially do some damage down the stretch. But Pickett just hasn’t shown any signs of improvement, and the run game can only do so much when the pass game is nonexistent. So expect some ugly games, maybe a few ugly wins, but not much else from this Steelers team down the stretch.
Watch the full Chris Simms Unbuttoned podcast below:
