The Pittsburgh Steelers are 6-2 at the midpoint of the season, their best mark since 2020. They have only started at least 6-2 through eight games twice since 2018, including this year. But how good is this Steelers team, really, especially on offense? Former Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger wants to see them tested more before making any proclamations.
“How good are the defenses that we’ve played so far?”, Roethlisberger said of the Steelers on his Footbahlin podcast. “They’ve been down some DBs. They’ve been thin in the secondary. What’s gonna happen when all of a sudden we play a team that’s got a really good secondary, that’s got a great pass rush? They can double a guy, or maybe not double George [Pickens] and put a really good guy on [Calvin] Austin [III]”.
Of the nine teams remaining with two or fewer losses, the Steelers rank low on the list in strength of schedule and strength of victory. Their three consecutive wins over two-win teams did those marks no favors, to be fair. But at the same time, the better teams they’ve beaten are better now than when they played them.
In Week 1, the Steelers were getting QB Kirk Cousins fresh off a major injury with a new team. Then they faced a rookie QB in Bo Nix making his second ever start, and he has played better since. The Los Angeles Chargers lost QB Justin Herbert in-game, who was already hurt. And that’s just talking about the breaks the Steelers have caught from opposing quarterbacks. Yet that worked against them when they played the Indianapolis Colts.
“I just want to pump the brakes a little bit, just because we don’t know what we’re gonna get when we face a really good defense”, Roethlisberger said of the Steelers. “But they’re doing what they have to do right now, and that’s all that matters”.
The thing is, as we’ve known since the NFL released the schedule that the Steelers play the tougher teams coming out of their bye. They play the Baltimore Ravens twice, plus the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles. While the other AFC North teams look less daunting than they might have back in May, the Washington Commanders are a prime threat.
The Chiefs, Eagles, and Commanders all rank in the top 10 in scoring defense, by the way. Surprisingly, the Ravens are all the way down in 26th place under a new defensive coordinator. But the Steelers also have to worry about perhaps the most dangerous offense Baltimore has ever had.
I do think most Steelers fans understand that they have had a softer schedule up to this point. They have also benefited from some injury luck, though so have their opponents against them. Technically speaking, they were without their starting quarterback for most of the season. That feels like a bigger deal now than it did two weeks ago.
