Okay, let’s reassess.
After the Steelers’ 27-14 win over the Browns, Pittsburgh was 10-3 and heading into a big game against Philadelphia, which was a good measure of where it stands as the playoffs approach. Pittsburgh currently owns the rights to a home game in the wild-card round due to its strong performance in the regular season, clinching a postseason berth despite a 27-13 loss to the Eagles on Sunday.
But in Sunday’s loss, the Steelers showed shortcomings in how they could match up against the best team in the NFL, which is close to the caliber of teams they need to beat to get into coming up in January. They’re probably closer to a team that puts up a good showing in the wild-card round than a team that poses a real threat to win it all.
The Steelers are feeling the absence of top wide receiver George Pickens, who has been out the past two weeks with a hamstring injury. In the two games where they didn’t have Pickens, the Steelers had one of the worst offenses in football. According to TruMedia, they rank 29th in conversion rate (34.5%), 30th in offensive expected points added (-24.1) and 27th in dropback success rate (36.4%). That’s not surprising since wide receiver depth is a known issue, but it’s an alarming sight that the entire offense becomes a nothingburger without Pickens.
His presence was needed against the Eagles, who largely put the Steelers in a locker. The Eagles have had arguably the best defense in football for most of the season and showed why again on Sunday. Pittsburgh had nothing offensively against Philadelphia in the first half. The Steelers averaged 2.7 yards per play, 2.9 yards per dropback and managed just one explosive. Without the help of their defense and special teams, they would have entered the half with fewer than the 13 points they struggled to get. They had no easy buttons with Pickens out and really no field presence as a team. If the Steelers don’t control the ball well, which is the case most weeks, and they don’t have Pickens, there’s not really much to worry about.
That part of the Steelers’ loss wasn’t surprising, but how they ultimately lost the game was. The Steelers have one of the best defenses in the league, but they allowed the Eagles to play keep-away to end the game. A fumble by Najee Harris, on one of two quality drives the Steelers had, led to an Eagles touchdown that gave them a 27-13 lead that they would not relinquish. On the final drive of the game, the Eagles ran 21 plays for 88 yards and milked the last 10:29 of the game clock to close it. Ten minutes and 29 seconds to run out the clock on the Steelers.
The Steelers defense has been a bit shaky this season and Pittsburgh has faced an incredibly rushing team, but not being able to get off the field within nearly a full fifteen minutes of the game clock is astonishingly bad.
It’s unlikely the Steelers, or any team that plays professional football, will give up such a ride for the rest of the season. The fact that it happened means this defense has a weakness that could be deadly in a one-game example. They need more help from the offense, but they’re too incapacitated without Pickens on the field — which is a problem in itself. A Super Bowl offense probably shouldn’t completely fall apart without Pickens, but the Steelers are.
This team is certainly better than recent Steelers teams that weren’t a threat in the playoffs, but they’re still far from the team they want to be – a team that can win multiple games in January.
