When the Pittsburgh Steelers take on the Arizona Cardinals Sunday, the offense should be set up for a big day at the office.
The Steelers are coming off their best offensive performance of the season in terms of yardage against the Cincinnati Bengals, accumulating 421 yards of total offense last Sunday, albeit only equating to 16 points on the scoreboard. Pittsburgh will have a great opportunity to score more points on Sunday with an offense that has all of its’ skill-position players healthy as well as an offensive line that is really coming into its own down the stretch.
Considering all of these factors as well as the opponent Pittsburgh will be facing, there is little excuse for QB Kenny Pickett to not have a big game against Arizona.
Pickett hardly played poorly against the Bengals last week. In fact, many would say that he had his best performance of the season, throwing for 278 yards while showing great ball placement on several of his throws and spreading the ball to his weapons. Still, the end zone eluded Pickett yet again as he only has six passing touchdowns on the year. He should have had one to Diontae Johnson in the back of the end zone, but the play was ruled a drop and HC Mike Tomlin did not challenge the play.
Touchdowns aren’t everything as a quarterback, but you want to see your franchise guy throw for more than 10 touchdowns in a season. Pickett will have a great chance to add to his touchdown total against the Cardinals as Arizona has allowed 21 passing touchdowns on the year, ranking 29th in football. Arizona will be without CBs Starling Thomas V and Antonio Hamilton as both have been ruled out of Sunday’s contest, depleting its secondary even more before Sunday’s matchup. Arizona’s defense is a unit that does a good job getting after the quarterback, though the Cardinals don’t have that marquee pass rusher but rather a committee of guys they utilize on the edge.
The running game should do a great job complementing Pickett and the passing game. Pittsburgh has been averaging 170 rushing yards per game the last four weeks of the season with Arizona allowing 140 yards per game on the ground this year. The Cardinals just got gashed by the Los Angeles Rams last week, likely meaning they will try to sell out to stop the run against Pittsburgh with the combination of Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren being this offense’s identity so far this season.
These factors, along with the offense being in a good rhythm after moving the football last week in Cincinnati, should set up Pickett to have possibly his best game of the season. Obviously, he needs to go out there and execute, seeing as he’s had plenty of advantageous matchups in the past but only produced modest results.
No one should be expecting a 350-yard, three-touchdown performance from Pickett against Arizona. He hasn’t shown that is in his wheelhouse so far through almost two seasons in the league. Rather, reaching close to 250 passing yards and one to two passing touchdowns should be achievable numbers for Pickett on Sunday and be in line with his best performance of the 2023 season. He has the weapons, the offensive line and the improved offense to do it. Now it’s Pickett’s time to go out there and deliver.
