Pittsburgh has 11 games to work its way back to respectability
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Many Pittsburgh Steelers fans have become resigned to the fact that being a .500 football team is a successful season. If you are part of that group, sitting at 3-3 is positive even if it means being last in the AFC North.
But for the rest of us, including the Steelers team, settling for last place isn’t going to win any awards and definitely won’t endear many fans to this team for a future soon-to-be minus Ben Roethlisberger.
How did we get to this point? It started back in the offseason. While the rest of the AFC North took steps to improve their respective rosters, Pittsburgh spent time trying not to get worse.
What this has created is a situation where after the seventh week of the NFL season, the new and improved Cincinnati Bengals are in first place. This is after they put a beatdown on the always-competitive Baltimore Ravens who now sit in second place.
Even if we assume Pittsburgh will be able to hold off the Cleveland Browns, getting past the Bengals and Ravens is going to be a huge task. One that I’m not sure the Steelers have the horses to do. The Bengals have already beaten the Steelers once this season but at least that loss looks a little better now after watching Cincinnati dismantle Baltimore on Sunday.
Either way, a strong case can be made the Steelers are objectively the fourth-best team in the AFC North but it didn’t have to be this way. Assuming they could neglect some positions in the offseason and being forced to bank heavily on rookies isn’t the mark of a team wanting to win this season.
But we want to hear from Steeler Nation. After watching what the Bengals did today, have you lost some faith in the Steelers and their odds to salvage the season or should the team just start looking ahead to 2022 now? Let us know in the comments.
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