The Pittsburgh Steelers clinched a winning season and extended their lead in the AFC North yesterday with a victory over the Cincinnati Bengals and a Baltimore Ravens loss. But despite Pittsburgh putting up 44 points in the win, ESPN’s Stephen A Smith said he isn’t fully bought into the idea of the Steelers as a contender. On First Take today, he said he’s sleeping on Pittsburgh.
“I’m not snoring on them. But I’m gonna sleep a little bit,” Smith said. “I think they need an additional wide receiver.”
Smith said he didn’t like the Steelers giving up 38 points, and thinks they are a second-tier AFC team.
“We viewed them as a playoff team, and I think that’s exactly as we should view them. Do we see them beating the Kansas City Chiefs, no. Do we see them beating Buffalo? No. Can we see Houston giving them a run for their money? Totally. Yes, we can. Baltimore potentially beating them? Yes.”
Pittsburgh has already beaten the Ravens once, but it’s fair to put the Ravens in the category of teams that can beat them. At this point, Pittsburgh can’t add another wideout who would make an impact like Smith wants, but it’s hard to say that they need another receiver after a game where Russell Wilson threw for 414 yards. He spread the ball around, and the Steelers don’t have a surefire No. 2. But Calvin Austin III has been getting more involved, with a touchdown catch in each of the last two weeks, and the Steelers are making things work with the personnel they currently have.
While their receiving options might not be the cream of the crop, they still can air it out, and George Pickens is among the NFL’s leading receivers. When Pat Freiermuth gets going like he did against the Bengals with six catches for 68 yards and a touchdown, the Steelers are just fine at the position.
How they stack up with the rest of the AFC is a fair concern, with Buffalo looking dominant and the Chiefs still sitting at 11-1 despite some uneven play lately. Pittsburgh and Baltimore are evenly matched, while the Texans have a lot of talent but have been dragged down by poor offensive line play that’s caused them to underperform a bit. All four of those teams are capable of beating the Steelers, but the Steelers aren’t going to be overmatched by any of them. They’re all games that conceivably could go either way, and the Steelers will get a good litmus test in Week 17 when they play the Chiefs.
It’s fair to have questions about the Steelers, especially with the defense allowing 31 points yesterday (the Bengals also scored on a pick-six), but the same defense forced three turnovers and has been pretty solid all season long. While they might not be the best of the best in the AFC, at this point it, looks like they could at least hang with the teams at the top of the conference. A strong close to the season with a difficult schedule awaiting Pittsburgh should be enough to wake Smith up.
