The Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense is trending in the wrong direction, and picking a bad time to do it. Minus a pit stop against the Browns, the Steelers have three of the very best offenses on deck. With the Cincinnati Bengals, Baltimore Ravens, and Philadelphia Eagles, the pressure is on to put up points.
There’s only one little hitch in that strategy, which is the fact that the Steelers have scored under 20 points two games in a row now. Sure, they scored at least 26 points four weeks in a row before that. But the Steelers have to play the Bengals this week, not a month ago.
If you add the Kansas City Chiefs, the Steelers have four games remaining against top-10 scoring offenses. The Ravens are on top at 32.7 points per game, with the Bengals sixth, Eagles seventh, and Chiefs 10th.
While they have already played the Ravens once (and held them to under 20 points for the first time this season), the Steelers have only faced one other top-10 offense so far this year. That was the Washington Commanders, whom they allowed to score 27—but the Steelers scored 28. How confident do you feel, though, in the Steelers winning many more 28-27 games this season?
While not running the numbers, I can only guess that the Steelers have faced a schedule at this point consisting of one of the lowest collective points-for figures in the league. Outside of the Commanders and Ravens, every other offense they’ve played ranks in the bottom half of the league.
The Giants rank 32nd, Browns 30th, Jets 27th, Raiders 26th, Cowboys 23rd, Colts 21st, Broncos 18th, and Falcons 17th. So how impressed are we supposed to be that the Steelers have the third-ranked scoring defense, after all?
On the flip side, the Steelers have played some of both the best and the worst scoring defenses. That includes the Chargers and Broncos in the former category and the Cowboys and Raiders in the other. And they did lose to the Cowboys—after a failed defensive stand. The same defense that failed to stand against the Browns’ awful offense last Thursday.
Sure, the Steelers managed to keep the Ravens’ scoring down, but can they do that to Joe Burrow? Can they do that to Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley? And the Ravens do get a rematch coming up, trying to prove that it’s a coincidence the Steelers keep shutting them down.
For at least a couple weeks, it seemed like Arthur Smith and Russell Wilson were building a true NFL offense. The Steelers haven’t been playing like it lately, though. Unless they rebound quickly, this final stretch run of the season could get ugly. Because the offense is likely going to get into some shootouts, and it seems to be low on bullets.
