In the first three weeks of the 2024 season, the Pittsburgh Steelers are playing the exact brand of football that they envisioned when they built the team this offseason.
Hard-nosed, physical, smashmouth football built around being the bully, punishing opposing teams and winning low-scoring games.
Through the first three weeks, that’s exactly what has transpired. The Steelers defeated the Atlanta Falcons, 18-10, the Denver Broncos, 13-6 and then the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday in their home-opener, 20-10.
In all three games, the Steelers were the more physical team, grinding out wins. Despite being 3-0 to start the season, doing so for just the fourth time in the Mike Tomlin era, there remain a lot of questions and concerns about the Steelers and if this 3-0 start is real or not.
Longtime talking head Bill Simmons has no concerns.
“I am a full believer in the Steelers. I’ve been betting on them every week. True or false? Their defense is better than anyone else’s? They’ve given up [26] points total in three games, and they’re kicking the shit outta people,” Simmons said on the latest episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast. “They kicked the shit outta [Kirk] Cousins Week 1. They have next few weeks at Indy, home against Dallas, at Vegas, home against Jets, home against Giants. Bye week.
“They have a real chance now to go 7-1.”
It’s hard not to believe in the Steelers right now. They’re doing everything they said they would, which is play great defense, run the football with a solid amount of success, dominate in the trenches on both sides of the football, create turnovers and harass opposing quarterbacks.
That style of play might not be all that pretty, which is raising concerns for many regarding how the Steelers look in winning games rather than focusing solely on how they are winning games.
But it’s a style the Steelers have really perfected, in a sense, winning ugly football games, finding a way to do so by leaning on their defense and avoiding the killer mistakes offensively. In the process, they are bludgeoning teams over and over again, wearing them down and taking over in games late.
That was the case on Sunday against the Chargers, and with the way the Steelers’ schedule is lining up based on early results around the league, that should continue, which could see the Steelers stacking quite a few wins in the next few weeks, continuing a strong start to the season.
