To keep with the holiday season, the back seven of the Pittsburgh Steelers is looking more and more like the Island of Misfit Toys due to the amount of injuries they’ve had to deal with.
Yet, those misfit toys came up big in Week 16 against the Cincinnati Bengals, helping the Steelers to a convincing 34-11 win to keep their playoff hopes alive.
Now, the real question entering Week 17 on the road against the Seattle Seahawks is if that back seven with Patrick Peterson at safety, Eric Rowe coming off the street to play safety and Myles Jack coming out of retirement to play linebacker again, can play at a high level for a second straight week to give the Steelers a chance against another explosive offense.
At least, that’s what Pro Football Focus’ Sam Monson is wondering.
“I wanna know if that Steelers’ back seven can do what they did on Christmas. Again, like you looked at that group on paper and you’re like, not only should it not function, it should be getting lit up,” Monson said on PFF’s Week 17 preview show. “They had no safeties. They’re playing Patrick Peterson at safety and a guy, Eric Rowe, who they just basically signed off the street to come in ’cause he’s got experience playing safety in the NFL. Their linebackers are guys they’ve signed off the couch.”
With Minkah Fitzpatrick out with a knee injury and Damontae Kazee suspended for the rest of the season, the Steelers were down to the bare minimum at safety last week. That led to them putting Patrick Peterson at safety and elevating Eric Rowe to the Active/Inactive Roster for the game against the Bengals.
It was rather fitting that Peterson and Rowe had interceptions in the game, while Jack came off the bench and had six tackles and a sack. He also nearly had an interception on a tipped pass.
Heck, even slot corner Chandon Sullivan had a big game with a key tackle for loss on a screen pass and another pass breakup in the win. Rookie cornerback Joey Porter Jr. remained his impressive self, shutting down Cincinnati’s Tee Higgins when matched up 1-on-1, while veteran Levi Wallace — who has had issues all season — had a decent game.
On paper though, this group shouldn’t have been as good as it was.
“This is not a group that looks like it should be functioning at all. And yet it didn’t just like keep its head above water in the last game, it was good. It made plays. It actually excelled,” Monson added regarding the Steelers’ back seven. “So that was one of those things that just made no sense. You look at that and you can’t have predicted this going into this game. There’s no way this group should be performing the way it’s performing in this game.
“Is that a weird source of Mike Tomlin magic or was it again, that just one game and weird things can happen in one game?”
That remains the question. Was it Tomlin magic to get all those new pieces in new places performing at a high level to help the Steelers get a big-time win in a must-have game? Or was it just a one-off, a fluke-type thing from a group that will crash back to Earth Sunday against an explosive Seattle offense?
Time will tell.
They have the in-stadium experience together now though and have success to build off of. Anything can happen, even with a group that, on paper, looks like it shouldn’t be able to function in today’s NFL.
