It hasn’t been easy, but the Pittsburgh Steelers are sitting at 4-2, a respectable record considering how sluggish their offense has looked. They’ve managed to stay in the playoff picture, which is more than can be said about some of the other AFC North teams. At the moment, it seems the division will be a battle between the Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens. However, analyst Chris Simms doesn’t even want the Steelers to make the playoffs.
“It’s heading to me wishing or hoping they don’t make the playoffs,” Simms said Monday on Pro Football Talk. “That’s what they’re looking like to me. It’s just gonna be a boring game. Just like they’ve been. They beat the teams they’re supposed to beat. They don’t mess those games up and lose them. They let the other teams lose them. But are they going to beat any of the quality teams in football? I don’t know.”
It’s tough to say right now that the Steelers would be boring to watch in the playoffs. There’s still a lot of time between now and then. The Steelers have gotten thrashed in the playoffs over the last couple of years, but with Justin Fields or Russell Wilson at quarterback, they could be more exciting.
Saying the Steelers beat the teams they’re supposed to beat isn’t really accurate either. If that were the case, they’d still be undefeated. They were favored to beat both the Indianapolis Colts and the Dallas Cowboys. In reality, they came out flat in both those games, not doing enough to win.
The Steelers do have an identity they want to stick to, and some people might call it boring, but results speak for themselves. The Steelers want to run the ball, not makes mistakes throwing the ball, and play stellar defense. When that formula has worked this year, they’ve won games.
It might not be flashy or exciting, but that doesn’t always win games. Look at the Kansas City Chiefs last year. They have the best quarterback in the NFL and a genius offensive mind at head coach, but when they got into the playoffs, their defense and run game became vital to their success. No one on their team was complaining when they made that transition.
Simms can want the Steelers to miss the playoffs all he wants, but Mike Tomlin has always done a good job keeping them in contention. Maybe they’ll be one and done again, but that’s no certainty. The playoffs are still far off, so things could always change. When that time comes, we’ll see if they prove him wrong.
