If there’s one thing that George Pickens’ absence is proving, it’s that he’s tremendously valuable to the Pittsburgh Steelers. With him, they have a chance to win in shootout games like they did against Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals. Without him, they struggle to average even 200 yards of total offense and the idea of complementary football breaks down.
“They have to play at their absolute best week in and week out,” former WR Andrew Hawkins said via ESPN’s Get Up. “Without George Pickens on the Pittsburgh Steelers, this is a different football team. I don’t mean that in a good way. I mean like, their chances of beating anybody are starting to be more and more slim because they have no ability to have explosive plays down the field without him. Like there’s a considerable drop-off the moment he stepped off the field.”
The Steelers have thrived over the last couple months on being a football team that can win in all three phases. Special teams did its part with a forced fumble against the Eagles. The defense wasn’t great but did its part with a forced fumble. But the offense couldn’t cash those checks. Without the offense working, none of it mattered.
In fact, the offense playing so poorly contributed to the defense then playing poorly in return. The defense logged 77 plays because the Steelers had their worst time of possession in over 20 years.
The Steelers won and managed to score points against the Browns in Week 14 without Pickens, but their efficiency was poor, and they did not put up many yards. The passing game had just 158 yards. It was even worse against the Eagles with 128 passing yards. That’s just 286 passing yards in the two games without Pickens.
Over the last two games, the Steelers have had a 38.8-percent successful play rate on offense with just 4.2 yards per play. Both of those numbers are 30th in the NFL, per TruMedia.
With Pickens and Russell Wilson, they were trending toward being a top 10-15 offense, but that trend is quickly reversing without him.
Will Pickens play this week against the Baltimore Ravens for a chance to clinch the AFC North division? Mike Tomlin said all healthy players will play, but the last thing the Steelers can afford is for Pickens to aggravate the injury and enter the playoffs without him. He got some work in on the side during yesterday’s practice. Wednesday and Thursday’s practice reports will tell the story.
Without him, I just can’t see the Steelers beating the Ravens and then the division will essentially be up for grabs with two weeks to go.
