It’s been a season full of ups and downs for the Pittsburgh Steelers, that much is certain.
There were some highs, like getting to 7-4 on the season despite some incomplete offensive performances. There were plenty of lows, too, like losing in five days to a pair of two-win teams in the Arizona Cardinals and New England Patriots, all but torpedoing their season.
But somehow now at 8-7 on the season after snapping a three-game losing streak with a 34-11 throttling of the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 16, the Steelers are still alive in the AFC playoff picture. In that win over the Bengals, the Steelers’ offense looked as good as it has in the last few years, which has ESPN’s Bill Barnwell baffled by the team in general.
On Thursday, Barnwell listed the Steelers as one of the most “infuriating” teams in the NFL to watch on a weekly basis, putting the Steelers at No. 4 in the list just behind the New York Jets, Jacksonville Jaguars and Philadelphia Eagles. In fact, Barnwell compared the Steelers to the Atlanta Falcons.
“The Steelers are the AFC’s version of the Falcons, only with a longer period of frustrating fans,” Barnwell writes. “You could date the disconnect between the team and what its fans want from the offense back to the Bruce Arians era, when he was offensive coordinator (2007-11), although it has been more consistent since Ben Roethlisberger suffered his right elbow injury and missed most of the 2019 campaign.
“A defense that ranks third in EPA per play since then has two wild-card appearances over that stretch, resulting in losses by a combined score of 90-58.”
There has been a disconnect with what the fans want to see from the offense and what the Steelers utilize in recent years, especially in the Matt Canada era. That led to three frustrating seasons of inconsistent offensive output until the Steelers fired their offensive coordinator ahead of Week 12 against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Though the Steelers came out and looked good in the week after Canada’s firing, compiling 421 yards of total offense, they scored just 16 points in a win over the Bengals.
After that, things went downhill again as the Steelers scored 10, 18 and 13 points in the next three weeks. Then, they exploded for 34 against the Bengals last Saturday.
“The offense wildly fluctuates from week to week and rarely lives up to expectations,” Barnwell writes. “…While the Steelers are in the thick of the playoff race, it’s tough to deny the offense has been a major disappointment.”
There is a wild fluctuation with the offense week-to-week, though not like what we just witnessed in Week 16. More often than not, that fluctuation is about the ability to execute properly and look like an average offense, able to do the basics in the run and passing game.
Against the Bengals, it was a different story entirely. The Steelers looked like a real, modern-day offense that attacked downfield consistently and actually had a plan. It helped that they had the quarterback to execute such play in Mason Rudolph.
But even with the win and remaining in the playoff picture, the offense remains a major concern entering Week 17. There are questions about who will be the starting quarterback in Seattle after Rudolph’s strong performance and Kenny Pickett stating he’s fully healthy and ready to go.
What does Mike Tomlin do? Ride the hot hand in Rudolph or go back to his starter in Pickett, who has been a disappointment this season, in a must-win game?
Regardless of who he goes with at quarterback, there will be a lot of pressure on that guy under center to perform at a high level once again, whether it’s Rudolph for a second straight week or Pickett stepping back into the job. That’s concerning though because there are no real expectations with the Steelers’ offense at this point.
You don’t know what group you’re getting on a weekly basis. Some weeks, they look like world-beaters. Others, they can’t do much of anything with the football. That’s what makes them so infuriating, at least in Barnwell’s eyes, and likely in the eyes of many Steelers’ fans, too.
