It was an exciting season for the Pittsburgh Steelers, and it had its fair share of ups and downs. With a 2-6 record before the bye week and a 7-2 record after it, there was a little bit of everything in 2022. The highs and lows of the year made the Steelers the perfect candidates for an article put out by NFL.com writer, Nick Shook, where he talks about the best win and worst loss by every team in the league.
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Kenny Pickett throwing in the Steelers and Raiders Week 16 matchup.
Steelers Best Win
Shook highlights the Week 16 win over the Las Vegas Raiders as the best win of the year:
"This win accomplished two important goals: 1) it kept the Steelers in the playoff hunt, and 2) it proved Kenny Pickett can be the quarterback of the future."
This was an incredible game for the rookie, Kenny Pickett, and gave him an opportunity to show that he had the poise to be everything that the fans want him to be. Pickett led the game-winning drive and capped it off with a touchdown pass to fellow rookie, George Pickens. The rookie to rookie connection was something to excite Steelers fans and give hope for what is to come. This definitely was an exciting moment and highlight of the season, just like Shook says, and to be honest, calling it the best win of the year is right on the money.
It seemed to be prove that the Steelers had a lot of things working in the right direction. The second half of the season was full of highs, but this one felt special.
Steelers Worst Loss
On the opposite side, Shook states that the Week 14 loss to the Baltimore Ravens was the worst of the season:
"If they had won, the Steelers might have been able to secure a playoff berth with their Week 18 domination of Cleveland, rather than watching the Dolphins claim the final spot in the AFC."
Every loss is absolutely the worst loss as a fan, and we all know that the season was chalked full of games that slipped through the Steelers' fingers. Looking back, picking the worst loss is a tough one. While Shook highlights this game against the Ravens with his reasoning also touching on the fact that it was a backup quarterback and an opposing team that was reeling. I think there should have been a different answer.
It was a Week 7, primetime game, against a good team that was struggling. The Steelers needed to beat the Miami Dolphins. The win here could have completely altered the course of the season and shown that the Steelers weren't what the record at the time reflected. It was a winnable game, but ended with the wrong outcome as the late game heroics were thwarted. Unlike our "best win" we talked about earlier, this one was not a shining moment for Pickett as his last drive ended in an interception.
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Diontae Johnson in the Steelers Week 7 loss at the Dolphins.
Both of these games came down to Pickett, and it is a great sign that the win came after the loss. The growth of Pickett is paralleled with the growth of the Steelers team as a whole. The season ended with everything trending in the correct direction. It's a crying shame that it wasn't enough at the end of the season for the Steelers to make the playoffs where they could have really tested their mettle.
Do you have thoughts about the best win or worst loss, Steeler Nation? Let me know in the comments!
