For much of the 2024 season, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense looked pretty solid, running the football consistently and pairing that with a dynamic play-action passing attack. From Week 7 through Week 13, the Steelers had an explosive offense, one that was a top-10 scoring offense in football.
Then the wheels fell off.
Pittsburgh dropped four straight games to close the regular season and didn’t score more than 17 points in any of those games, marking a stretch of futility that hadn’t even been seen in the Matt Canada era.
Now, the Steelers enter a AFC Wild Card matchup on the road against the Baltimore Ravens looking to get the train back on the tracks. To do that, Good Morning Football analyst Peter Schrager believes the Steelers need something that doesn’t exist.
Magic pixie dust.
“I have great fears that this defense can’t suddenly snap its fingers and stop Lamar [Jackson] and Derrick Henry and Rashod Bateman and what the Ravens have going for them. How do they fix it? It’ll take magic pixie dust to expect Russell Wilson to throw for 500 yards and for George Pickens to have a 230-yard receiving game,” Schrager said on GMFB Friday, according to video via NFL Network. “I can’t go with the offense. It has to be what the bread and butter of the team was all along: their defense.
“And that defense has failed them the last four weeks. Pittsburgh’s D: you’re the pride, you’re the rock, you’re the bedrock. Wake up, folks! Because after Saturday, the season could be done if you don’t show up.”
In the last month the Steelers’ offense has struggled to do much of anything right.
The ground game has dried up, defenders are running free into the backfield making it hard for Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren to get much of anything generated. Turnovers are occurring at an alarming rate, and the explosive-play element down the field from QB Russell Wilson to WRs George Pickens, Calvin Austin III and Mike Williams, among others, is largely non-existent.
Though the Steelers have expressed confidence in being able to turn things around, you can’t just flip a switch in that regard. The last four weeks have been awful for Pittsburgh.
So, it will likely come down to the defense against the Ravens. If the Steelers can stop the run and not allow Derrick Henry to gash them for 162 yards on 24 carries like he did in the last matchup, the Steelers should have a chance.
If not, it could be a long night in cold, windy conditions in a hostile environment as the season comes to a close.
