All season, the Pittsburgh Steelers offense has struggled. QB Kenny Pickett hasn’t looked the part of a franchise quarterback, and the team has struggled to sustain drives and put points on the board. While the Steelers only put up 16 points in their win over the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 12, the offense gained 421 yards in their first game after replacing Matt Canada as offensive coordinator with Eddie Faulkner and Mike Sullivan.
One player who was excited to see the offense’s performance was safety Trenton Thompson, who had an interception for Pittsburgh in his second career start on Sunday.
“Since I’ve been here, I was definitely glad to see Kenny (Pickett) go out there and be able to throw the ball more. We’ve got a lot of playmakers — Diontae (Johnson), GP (George Pickett), A-Rob (Allen Robinson II) — it doesn’t matter who it is. So I was happy we were able to go out there and do something a little different. What was it — 400-something total yards? I’m really happy for him, because I know (when you’re) a first-round draft pick, the media can bash you. So I’m happy for Kenny,” Thompson said via transcript provided by the team.
Regardless of being a first-round pick, the starting quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers is going to deal with criticism if he’s not playing well. The team is one of the biggest brands in the National Football League, and it’s a major talking point — and an easy one — to criticize the quarterback when he’s not playing well. And the criticism was warranted, too. Pickett was barely throwing for 100 yards, missing open receivers, and the Steelers were winning because of their defense and run game and not so much what he was doing under center.
Yesterday, though, was Pickett’s best performance of the season. If it was really a Canada problem, which RB Jaylen Warren hinted at postgame, then hopefully now we get to see Pickett play better and evaluate him better and see if he can be this team’s franchise quarterback.
In the win over Cincinnati, Pickett was 24-of-33 for 278 yards. He was also 10-of-14 on third downs, keeping drives alive and letting the defense rest on the sideline. The Steelers likely would’ve had at least another three points had it not been for Warren’s fumble in plus territory, and it was a season-high in yardage for Pickett.
It’s a performance to build on, and with games against the Arizona Cardinals and New England Patriots coming up, and it would be awesome to see Pickett finally string some good games together. If that can happen, I think lots of people will have renewed faith in Pickett and the criticism from the media will start turning to praise.
