The Pittsburgh Steelers looked pretty solid in the first six weeks of the season with Justin Fields helping pilot the Black and Gold to a 4-2 start. But pretty good wasn’t good enough.
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin turned to quarterback Russell Wilson when he was finally healthy, and since then the move to the veteran quarterback has rewarded the Steelers in a major way.
Pittsburgh sits at 7-2 entering their Week 11 matchup against the Baltimore Ravens Sunday at Acrisure Stadium. They look like legitimate Super Bowl contenders as Wilson has rejuvenated himself.
For FOX Sports NFL analyst and insider Jordan Schultz, he’s buying into the Steelers in a big way due to the “old-school football with a new twist” in Pittsburgh with Wilson at the helm offensively coupled with a great defense and a special teams unit that keeps coming up with big plays.
Appearing on FS1’s “The Herd With Colin Cowherd” Friday, Schultz spoke highly of the Steelers.
“I just love this football team and I love [Wilson] because it’s old-school football with a new twist. It’s Russell Wilson Diet. It’s the Seahawks version of him, but maybe not as much of the read option. And when they went three weeks ago and they decided they were gonna move on from Justin Fields, I was the first one that said, ‘I think it’s a mistake. I don’t love this move.’ They were 4-2. It looked like they were in a good position. But Russell Wilson has taken them to a new level,” Schultz said, according to video via his Twitter account. “And I go back to the conversation he had with Mike Tomlin in Pittsburgh, one-on-one. They spent multiple hours together and they really bonded.
“And I think that’s when Russell Wilson became the future of this franchise, at least this season, because Mike Tomlin has always said, if you’re a starter, you cannot lose your job if you get injured.”
Since Wilson was inserted into the starting lineup, things have changed dramatically for the Steelers. They look like an explosive offense overall, one that is pushing the ball down the field in the passing game, which has opened things up in the run game.
In the three games Wilson has played for the Steelers so far, they are averaging 30.3 points and are 3-0, which includes a huge win in Week 10 on the road against the Washington Commanders. Wilson wasn’t as sharp in Week 10 as he had been in the previous two games, but he made plays when it mattered most. None were bigger than the 32-yard game-winning TD pass he threw to new WR Mike Williams on a 3rd and 9 late in the fourth quarter.
“They bring Russell Wilson back. You see that moon ball, you see Mike Williams. You see George Pickens, the connection, how accurate he’s been. And then also, they remind me in some ways of the [Detroit] Lions where if you look at teams after they play Pittsburgh, there is a level-down effect. The next week that’s Pittsburgh. That’s what they want to do. They’re so physical defensively,” Schultz said. “And it also reminds me of something that Richard Sherman told me once, where he said, with Seattle, ‘We used to tell Russ, just get us to 14. Get us to 17. We’ll do the rest.’
“That’s the sense I get now with this defense, which really, to me is the most efficient across the league.”
That’s a good point. The Steelers have the horses in place to be an elite defense, and for much of the season that’s what they’ve been. Last week was a bit of an aberration as the Commanders scored a touchdown after starting on the Steelers’ 15-yard line followed a failed fake punt.
Outside of that, though, the Steelers’ defense has been stout. With what Wilson is doing offensively, 17 points might be enough more often than not moving forward for the Black and Gold.
Thats’ a great spot to be in under head coach Mike Tomlin. They have an old-school philosophy but have put a new-age twist on offense and are thriving, and it has them looking like legitimate contenders.
