Despite coming off their first loss of the season in Week 4 to the Indianapolis Colts, the Pittsburgh Steelers showed a lot offensively with their second-half comeback, and former NFL cornerback and current ESPN analyst Dominique Foxworth believes that Pittsburgh is a contender in the AFC. Asked on Get Up this morning if Pittsburgh is a real contender, he said that its defense is a group that teams are scared to go up against, which makes the Steelers a contender.
“Yeah, I think so. Particularly in this season where we aren’t seeing this offensive onslaught. There isn’t really an offense in the league that anyone is terrified to go up against, and they do have a defense that people are scared to go up against,” Foxworth said.
He also complimented Justin Fields for eliminating bad plays, changing his tune from just a few weeks ago, and said that Fields has “elite high-end ability,” which makes the Steelers a “team to be reckoned with.”
It’s a real turnaround from Foxworth, who spent the early part of the season criticizing Fields and believing the Steelers can’t go far with him. But Fields has played better and better each week. He threw for 312 yards and a touchdown against the Colts while running for 55 yards and another two touchdowns, and it was Pittsburgh’s defense that struggled in the 27-24 loss after the offense caught fire in the second half.
The offense can’t keep continuing to start slow, but it could be a solid unit under Fields if that group strings together a full game. The Steelers only had three points at the half before coming back in the second half, but at that point the deficit proved to just be too much to overcome, and Pittsburgh’s two-minute drive at the end of the game fell short.
Foxworth is right that there isn’t really one standout offense that teams are afraid of. The NFL has trended into a more offensive league, but even the Kansas City Chiefs have had their struggles offensively this season, and there’s no real standout unit that strikes fear in the heart of opponents. Now, the Colts didn’t look afraid while going up against the Steelers’ defense in Week 4, and that game proved that there’s still plenty of work to be done on the defensive side of the ball, although the Colts’ game plan was aggressive early and kept Pittsburgh on its heels.
Despite the Week 4 struggles, the Steelers’ defense should still be one of the best units in the league, and that game hopefully proves to be a wake-up call. The Steelers can be contenders if their defense plays the way it did Weeks 1-3 and the offense can put together a full game, and it’ll be interesting to watch those developments throughout the rest of the season.
