Just win, baby. That was the mantra of late Raiders’ owner Al Davis. And it can be applied to their then-rival of the 1970s, the Pittsburgh Steelers. It isn’t pretty, it sure isn’t easy, but wins are wins. That’s all T.J. Watt cares about. Speaking to reporters Friday afternoon, Watt wasn’t concerned with how the team is winning so long as the Steelers keep stacking victories.
“No one’s going to remember in 10 years what the scores were, what the outcomes of games were,” Watt said via The Trib’s Chris Adamski. “It’s all about wins and losses. Each week, we’re just trying to get the job done.”
Despite a 6-3 record, the Steelers have a negative point differential. Two of their losses have been in blowout fashion, 23-plus point defeats to the San Francisco 49ers and Houston Texans, while all of their six wins have been by no more than seven points. Meaning, all of their wins this season have been by one score.
Pittsburgh is the king of winning close games. In the Mike Tomlin era, 2007 to today, no team has played in and won as many one-score games as the Steelers, 95 of them. And they easily have the team’s highest winning percentage in such games. In fact, they could lose their next six games by one possession and still sit in first place. They could lose their next 20 games by that margin and still barely be outside the top five.
Still, Watt understands the problem the Steelers might be facing. Can they sustain? Can they improve and find a way to give themselves more margin for error instead of being on the razor’s edge between winning and losing.
“We understand there’s so much more good football that’s left in the tank for us,” he said. “We’re not trying to peak right now. We are trying to continually trend in the right direction.”
In some ways, the Steelers are getting better. Their running game has come alive the last two weeks, rushing for 166 yards against the Tennessee Titans and topping that with 205 yards last Sunday against the Green Bay Packers. And the defense has made timely splash plays, especially late and in the red zone, as our Clayton Eckert pointed out earlier today.
Pittsburgh may not be looking to peak now but it has a real opportunity to advance its playoff chances over the next two weeks. Two critical AFC North matchups loom against teams hurting at quarterback. The Browns with rookie Dorian Thompson-Robinson, the Cincinnati Bengals who may be forced to turn to Jake Browning if Joe Burrow can’t play.
Whether it’s by one point or 20 (and let’s be honest, it’s far more likely to be by one), winning these next two games will make it a two-man race between the Baltimore Ravens and Steelers for the AFC North crown, potentially making the Week 18 regular-season finale a winner-take-all event between those two teams.
