The Pittsburgh Steelers enter this week ranked 10th in the NFL in scoring offense. To some, perhaps many, that would come as a surprise. While they put together a formula this offseason, there was no guarantee it would work as well as it has.
Once a popular pick to finish last in the AFC North, the Steelers are now the frontrunners, though there is still a lot of football ahead. Still, as long as they can beat the Ravens in their second matchup, they will be in good shape. Or if they just take care of the Ohio teams.
So much of how the final five weeks go rests on the future of the offense. While the Steelers are coming off a 44-point game, they were held to under 20 in the previous two weeks. So what are we to believe after they smoked arguably the worst defense in the league? For Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, he finds himself a cautious buyer.
“If I had to pick between the two, I think I’m leaning towards the new normal”, he said on 93.7 The Fan, meaning he believes the Steelers’ last game is more likely to become something close to typical than it is an outlier. Perhaps not quite 44 points but an offense that can regularly move the ball and score points.
“I thought the great thing about the Bengals game was [Steelers OC Arthur Smith] finally broke his tendencies”, Fittipaldo continued. “Play-action on first downs, drop-back passes on first down. The Bengals were caught off-guard by that, and now every other team is gonna be sitting back on their heels. I think it plays into the Steelers’ hands there, that now they’re not gonna be as predictable as they have been”.
Over the past seven games, the Steelers have scored at least 26 points five times. That includes four out of six games with Russell Wilson at quarterback, but the other two were below 20 points. But they are averaging 24.7 points per game on the season and 29.1 over the last seven games.
I don’t know that anybody is going to mistake the Steelers for a true offensive juggernaut. However, they have shown that they have the capability of matching guns when necessary. The way they responded to the Bengals’ touchdowns with touchdowns this past week was particularly impressive. They knew this had the potential to be a high-scoring game, and they stepped up to the plate.
But can Russell Wilson and company put up 30 points on the Kansas City Chiefs or Buffalo Bills in the playoffs if that is what the Steelers need to win? Given their recent postseason results, the odds of that being necessary would seem to be high.
