At 5-3, the Pittsburgh Steelers are right in the thick of the AFC playoff picture, as well as the AFC North divisional race.
It might be some smoke and mirrors, but wins are wins. The Steelers are finding a way to win games.
But for former Steelers safety and ESPN analyst Ryan Clark, the Steelers are not contenders. They are pretenders, and in the worst way. They are imposters.
Appearing on ESPN’s First Take Friday morning following the Steelers’ 20-16 win over the Tennessee Titans on Thursday Night Football, Clark was critical of the Steelers and the way they are winning games, stating that they don’t match up with the AFC’s top teams.
“They’re imposters. They aren’t a team that can win a championship. This isn’t a team that could get to a conference championship,” Clark said to Steven A. Smith, according to video via ESPN’s YouTube page. “When you look at what you saw last night, it’s the way the Steelers win football games. If you allow them to stay close, they have a coach who has preached belief, a coached who has preached situational football, and they find ways to make plays late.
“But this is the team that we’re gonna have to be excited about overcoming obstacles and adversities to beat the Tennessee Titans? How does that team beat the Miami Dolphins? How does that team beat the Cincinnati Bengals, the Baltimore Ravens, the Kansas City Chiefs? How does that team beat the Buffalo Bills? They don’t. They just don’t. We’re overcoming and having to figure out ways to just be there. That’s not the Pittsburgh Steeler way.”
There is something to be said for the Steelers winning games, and doing so in a fashion that works for them: leaning on the defense to keep games close and them making just enough plays late offensively to pull out the win.
But that doesn’t exactly work when it comes to matching up against the contenders in the AFC, as Clark pointed out. When the Steelers have faced some top teams, like the San Francisco 49ers and Jacksonville Jaguars, they’ve been beaten soundly. Of course, that wasn’t the case when they played the Baltimore Ravens, but even that game was ugly and shaped by the Ravens dropping a lot of passes to keep it close.
The Steelers certainly are comfortable late in close games because of the preparation that head coach Mike Tomlin puts them through on a weekly basis to be ready for those moments, but it’s not exactly sustainable in today’s NFL.
They might be imposters right now in Clark’s eyes, but just get into the dance and see what happens.
