It wasn’t pretty, but it’s hard to complain when the team is 8-2 and has won eight of nine against the Ravens.
Pittsburgh is clearly better than years past, but are they a Super Bowl contender?
The Steelers won without scoring a touchdown for the second time this season. Considering that they were playing against the worst passing defense in the NFL, it would have been nice to see a stronger performance from Russell Wilson and the offense.
Luckily, the defense really came to play on Sunday. They forced three turnovers while holding the best offense in the NFL to their lowest scoring and yardage output of the season.
With Pittsburgh at 8-2, it’s fair to start thinking the end of season goal could be winning the Super Bowl. The Bills and Chiefs are the teams that Pittsburgh would be compared to if they want to be in that conversation.
The remaining schedule for the Steelers include four games against the 2-8 Browns and 4-7 Bengals. The other three games will include road games at the 8-2 Eagles and 7-4 Ravens, as well as a Christmas home game against the 9-1 Chiefs.
With Kansas City at 9-1 and Buffalo at 9-2 the Steelers probably would have to be 14-3 with a win against the Chiefs to get home field advantage and a first round playoff bye. That will be extremely difficult.
Winning the division and getting a high playoff seed would still be a really good spot to be in. Most important for the Steelers right now is to take advantage of their next three games. Pittsburgh has a chance to be 11-2 after beating the Browns this Thursday, the Bengals on Dec. 1, then the Browns again on Dec. 8.
Cleveland is having a really disappointing season. After going 11-6 and making the playoffs with the No. 1 defense in the NFL in 2023, they now sit at 2-8 with Deshaun Watson out for the season.
The defense is also way down from what it was last year as they are 19th in the league. Defensive end Myles Garrett still is doing well with 7 sacks and 10 tackles for loss. Linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah has 61 tackles with 10 of them being for loss. The Browns have only caught two interceptions this season.
Offensively, 2015 No. 1 overall pick Jameis Winston has taken over at quarterback. In eight games Winston has 1,047 passing yards with 7 touchdowns to 3 interceptions.
Cleveland is capable of winning through passing, but they are bad at running the ball. Nick Chubb has returned from his gruesome knee injury that he suffered against the Steelers in week 2 of 2023. He hasn’t looked the same though, through four games he only has 163 and 1 touchdown on 3.1 yards per carry. The team ranks 29th in the league in rushing with 89 yards per game.
The Steelers are coming off of two really huge wins that have put them in a good spot. The Browns have nothing to lose at home on Thursday Night Football against their biggest rivals. On paper the Steelers should win, but if Pittsburgh comes into this game thinking it will be easy then they are playing with fire.
There are still seven games left in the season, and you want to see the Steelers get better, not worse as it gets later in the year. It will be interesting to see what kind of Steeler team we see on Thursday night.
