A win is a win. In the NFL, you take it however you can get it. That’s been the Pittsburgh Steelers’ mantra for years, especially post-Ben Roethlisberger when victories became harder to attain. Securing victory against the Cincinnati Bengals was critical for all kinds of reasons. To defeat an AFC North opponent, to avoid a two-game skid, to gain back the divisional cushion on the Baltimore Ravens, and keep No. 1/No. 2 playoff seeding a possibility.
But this win was different. The Steelers proved they could win in a way they haven’t since Roethlisberger hung up his cleats. Frankly, a type of win they didn’t get with him in his final years. Win the shootout. Match points for points. Go toe-to-toe with a great opposing quarterback, and Joe Burrow is one of those guys, and come out on top by game’s end.
Obviously, giving up 38 points isn’t ideal. Nor is it a sustainable model of winning. But come the playoffs, you might find yourself in that type of game. Pittsburgh has. It has given up big points in the postseason. Forty-five to the Jacksonville Jaguars, 48 to the Cleveland Browns, 42 to the Kansas City Chiefs, and 31 to the Buffalo Bills. Points will be needed.
Odds are, Pittsburgh will face a high-end quarterback in the postseason. Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Justin Herbert, C.J. Stroud (if he and the Houston Texans can get back on track). One of those high-talent, high-pedigree guys who can put up points in bunches. The Steelers will need to make plays defensively, as they did even in giving up 31 (not counting the pick-six, obviously) to Burrow and the Bengals Sunday. But the reality is those offenses move the ball and score. That’s what they do. On everyone. Even the Chiefs, who aren’t their video game-production selves, come alive in the playoffs.
Under Russell Wilson, the Steelers can score. The win over the Bengals inspires even more confidence than the strong offensive showings Pittsburgh notched earlier this year against the New York Jets and New York Giants. Those weren’t shootouts against A-grade quarterbacks. It was an over-the-hill Aaron Rodgers and a now-released Daniel Jones. Ditto with the 32-point showing against the Las Vegas Raiders that didn’t even feel like a 30-point game and came with a shaky Justin Fields against Aidan O’Connell.
Pittsburgh will face better defenses than Cincinnati’s in the postseason. They’ll face them throughout the regular season, too with the Philadelphia Eagles and Chiefs on tape. Even the Ravens and Cleveland Browns have more talented and scarier defenses than what the Bengals are bringing to the table.
Shootouts still aren’t the path the Steelers want to make a playoff run. But Sunday showed they are capable of playing and winning that type of game. It inspires confidence that no matter how many postseason-game arc happens, a low-scoring slugfest, a high-scoring affair, a back-and-forth game decided in the final minutes, there’s a Steelers proof of concept of every style to victory.
