Who are the Pittsburgh Steelers right now? They appear to be defying the odds on a regular basis this season, largely moving into uncharted territory. In spite of the fact that they continue to be outgained by every single team that they play, they manage to find ways to win—and usually in the final minutes of the fourth quarter, either offensively or defensively.
Now 6-3 with numerous game-winning scores and game-sealing turnovers to get there, the Steelers are a loss by the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday night away from playing for the outright lead in the AFC North against the Cleveland Browns on Sunday. Only the Kansas City Chiefs at 7-2 have fewer losses in the AFC.
And yet they don’t seem to get a lot of love for the way they win. Not even from LeBron James, one of the all-time greats in the history of American sports (cue meaningless debate). Earlier this month, he described his Los Angeles Lakers as similar to the Steelers. “The Pittsburgh Steelers right now have not outgained or outscored any of their opponents in this season right now, and yet they’ve got a winning record”, he said. Of course, he misspoke when he said outscored, likely meaning the season-long scoring differential being in the negative, but you get the point.
Cameron Heyward did, as well, or at least he got something from it. And he wanted to let LeBron know—hey, look, the only statistic that matters is the one in the win column. “I love LeBron, and I love that he plays basketball, and I love what he does in the city of Cleveland. But, man, stay away from football my guy”, he said in the latest episode of his Not Just Football podcast, according to a teaser video posted Tuesday night.
He said that LeBron’s comparison to the Lakers, who are 5-5 at the time of writing, isn’t holding up, and talked about how the team’s fourth-quarter success has almost been weaponized against them. “Do we make a big deal about when Michael Jordan was hitting game-winning shots?”, he asked, rattling off a list of names of greats. “Do we say, ‘Oh, the defense didn’t get it done’, or ‘the offense didn’t get it done up to that moment’? No!”
“We’re just driving a narrative that makes it seem that we’re only good for the fourth quarter”, Heyward went on. “Well, damnit, yeah, you’re supposed to be good in the fourth quarter. It’s supposed to matter in those moments”.
The Steelers are putting up their best numbers almost uniformly across the board during the fourth quarter. They average 5.3 yards per carry when you remove kneeldowns while allowing 3.2. They average 7.4 yards per pass attempt while allowing 7.1 (with an adjusted NPYA of just 4.8). They’ve allowed three touchdowns, the lowest of any quarter, while scoring four, the most of any quarter. It hasn’t always looked like a Renaissance painting, but they’ve gotten the job done.
“People say ‘pretty’ is scoring a lot of points, right? Isn’t pretty a defense dominating and making sure we make the plays at the right time and your offense makes plays accordingly?”, Heyward said. “I hate that we’ve gotten to a point where, ‘Oh, we’re not blowing out the team so we’re gonna dice these people up and not agree with how they’re winning’. It doesn’t matter! You play football to win the game. Nothing else. Win the game, get off the field, and keep it moving”.
Of course it’s easier to say when you’re winning. They’re 4-1 in their past five games, most of them having come at home. But they have the Browns and Bengals up next, and then finish with the Colts, Bengals again, Seahawks and Ravens. There’s still a lot of football left to test the manner in which they’ve won games if they can’t start winning them in a more scenic fashion.
