After their 23-17 win over the Arizona Cardinals, the Pittsburgh Steelers have won seven of their last eight games and are putting their slow start behind them. The Steelers defense has been smothering and as the offense gets going with Devlin Hodges at quarterback, this team looks like one teams won’t want to face down the stretch.
But despite their road win last week, The Steelers made no headway in the Touchdown Wire NFL power rankings where they held steady at No. 12. Here’s what they said about Pittsburgh this week:
With Pittsburgh’s 23-17 win over the Cardinals on Sunday, head coach Mike Tomlin guaranteed his 13th consecutive non-losing season — he’s never had any other kind. This season may well be Tomlin’s most impressive coaching performance, as he’s lifted his team into the playoff race with one of the worst quarterback situations in the NFL. How have Tomlin and his team done it? Defense. The Steelers intercepted Arizona rookie quarterback Kyler Murray three times in the win, and that put them behind only the Patriots in interceptions this season with 18. Pittsburgh leads the league with 48 sacks, and only the Saints and Cowboys have more pressures than Pittsburgh’s 164. Quarterback Devlin “Duck” Hodges became the first undrafted rookie to win his first three starts since a replacement player named Ed Rubbert did it during the 1987 strike. If Hodges can find some consistency with a depleted receiving corps, that’s all he has to do — because this defense is one of the NFL’s best.
Rankings like this have to be taken with a grain of salt. The fact Pittsburgh is even on the fringe of the Top 10 after a 1-4 start is remarkable. With three games to play, Pittsburgh still has plenty of time to creep up the list. But as we all know it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.
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