Just a couple of weeks ago, many thought the sky was falling on the Pittsburgh Steelers and their 2023 season after suffering a heartbreaking loss on the road to the Cleveland Browns. Cleveland was undermanned without QB Deshaun Watson and RB Nick Chubb on offense, but the Browns still managed to defeat Pittsburgh in an ugly contest where the offense looked underwhelming outside of a 74-yard touchdown run by RB Jaylen Warren.
Fast forward one week and vibe surrounding the Steelers is a lot more positive after a 16-10 win against the Cincinnati Bengals. The offense put up over 400 yards for the first time in years and the defense continued to play stingy, holding Cincinnati to just 222 yards of total offense.
Currently sitting at 7-4, the Steelers are in prime position to make it to the playoffs as they have a favorable schedule the rest of the way and seem to be hitting their stride offensively post-Matt Canada. While a postseason berth is highly likely barring some late season implosion by this team, many wouldn’t consider Pittsburgh to be an actual contender for a potential run at a Lombardi Trophy.
However, when you look at this Pittsburgh team, it does share a lot of similarities to the Steelers’ previous Super Bowl championships teams, particularly the 2005 team. The 2005 Steelers finished 11-5 and got a Wild-Card berth in the playoffs, a scenario this Steelers team is trending toward.
The 2005 season was QB Ben Roethlisberger’s second one in the league, just like 2023 is QB Kenny Pickett’s second NFL season. While Roethlisberger become a prolific quarterback with time, he started out his career rather shaky from a passing perspective, much like Pickett. In 12 starts in 2005, Roethlisberger went 9-3, completing 62.7% of his passes for 2,385 yards and 17 touchdowns to nine interceptions. Pickett by comparison has gone 7-4 as the starting quarterback this season through 11 games, having thrown for 2,000 yards with a 61.8% completion rate with six touchdowns to four interceptions while missing time in several games due to injury. The touchdowns are notably lower for Pickett compared to Roethlisberger, but he also has half of the turnovers Roethlisberger had in 2005.
From a statistical perspective the 2005 and 2023 Steelers are very similar as well. The 2023 Steelers currently rank fifth in scoring defense with the 2005 team ranking third in football in scoring defense. The scoring offense for the 2005 team was much better than this unit in 2023, but the yardage ranks are fairly similar with the 2005 team ranking 24th in football in passing yards and fifth in the league in rushing. The 2023 team currently ranks 28th in the league in passing yards and 14th in rushing but has seen its rank as a running game shoot up the board the last month. The running back tandem of Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren has started to dominate games much like Willie Parker and Jerome Bettis did in 2005.
While the offenses look fairly similar, the same can be said for the defenses as the 2005 team and the 2023 team have proven to be pretty stingy units. Both units were full of stars playing similar roles like Joey Porter and T.J. Watt at outside linebacker, Minkah Fitzpatrick and Troy Polamalu at safety, and Cameron Heyward and Aaron Smith along the defensive line. The 2023 unit is on pace for the same number of takeaways as the 2005 team (30) and the 2023 team has been playing suffocating run defense the last couple of weeks, much like the 2005 team did.
The 2005 team hit some adversity in the middle of the year, dropping three-straight games to go to 7-5. However, the Steelers went on to win their last four regular-season games and swept in the playoffs en route to a Super Bowl Championship. The 2023 team has had its fair share of struggles this season too but is shaping up to go on a run of its ow. With one of the league’s easiest schedules remaining, it looks like the offense is trending in the right direction. There’s a legit chance this team can get to 11-4 after it’s next four games and finish the year with a similar record and performance on the field as the 2005 team.
Obviously this Steelers team will need to put pen to paper and actually make it happen much like the 2005 squad did, but to say that this team can make a similar impact in the postseason that the 2005 team did may not be too far-fetched. They have the weapons on offense as well as an improving offensive line and a dynamic duo in the backfield. The Steelers also have a stout defense that does a great job creating turnovers, much like the 2005 team. They might not be this high-flying offense, but the 2005 team showed you don’t need that as long as you play complementary football, something that the 2023 Steelers look to be trending toward in the back half of the season.
