The Pittsburgh Steelers are 2-1 this season when allowing 25-plus points, including their 44-38 win over the Cincinnati Bengals Sunday. Both teams benefited from one defensive touchdown, but even beyond that, it was a high-scoring affair. In fact, it was the highest-scoring game of the entire NFL season, the AFC North rivals combining for 82 points.
One would think the Steelers feel good about that—after all, a win always feels good. Style points don’t matter, as Mike Tomlin always says after an ugly win. But while they scored 44 points, you can’t lose sight of the 38 points they allowed.
“I don’t know that I’m ever comfortable playing in a shootout”, Tomlin said Tuesday via the Steelers’ website. “It’s just my background and my expertise, to be quite honest with you. I respect offenses and talented players, and I acknowledge when we’re faced with stiff challenges, but it doesn’t mean that I’ll ever be comfortable in those circumstances”.
One mark of a championship-caliber team is the ability to outscore your opponent no matter what the circumstances. That means if the other team scores 31, you have to score at least 32. The Steelers have shown a couple times this year that they can outpace a good offense. But what sticks out to Tomlin most, at least after the win, is the defense.
“I have certain expectations, because of my professional journey on defense, that I expect us to slow those things down and minimize some of that”, Tomlin said of the Steelers, “and in the rare instances that we don’t, I’m thankful that we have an offense that’s capable of matching it”.
Part of the discussion is the fact that Tomlin and the Steelers haven’t had an offense capable of that in recent seasons. They went 0-10 in 2022-23 when allowing 24 or more points. Even in Roethlisberger’s final season, the Steelers went 1-8 in such games, including the playoffs. The last time they won a “shootout” was a 29-27 win over the Bears in Week 9 of 2021. And that wasn’t really a shootout, the Bears scoring two offensive touchdowns. With Justin Fields at quarterback, of course (yes, that was the Cassius Marsh game).
Of course, it’s never easy to win when your opponent is scoring a lot of points. Nobody is going to have a great record in games in which the opposing team scores 38 points. But the Steelers are grateful to have a quarterback like Russell Wilson who showed he is capable of doing it.
That doesn’t mean the Steelers are or should be comfortable playing in such an environment. Giving up points should never be something that is comfortable—it should create unease. But you should be able to feel capable, and with Wilson and this offense, Mike Tomlin’s Steelers finally have that again.
