The Pittsburgh Steelers just are entering a mini bye week after a win on Thursday Night Football in Week 9 against the Tennessee Titans. As always, it was yet again a one-score game that required a fourth quarter comeback, but the Steelers managed to pull it out and move to 5-3 on the season.
Abigail Dean / Pittsburgh Steelers
Steelers WR Diontae Johnson catches his first touchdown since 2021 which completed the comeback in Week 9 against the Tennessee Titans
The game started out like it was going to be a true breakout game for the offense, and hopefully a convincing victory that didn't give all of Steeler Nation a high level of anxiety from start to finish.
Offensive Coordinator, Matt Canada was on the sideline to call plays in the game, down from his usual spot in the press box. First-round rookie, Broderick Jones made the start at right tackle over veteran, Chukwuma Okorafor. These two things paired with Kenny Pickett marching the offense right down the field and into the end zone on the opening drive of the game gave the impression of the Steelers finally putting everything together.
Unfortunately, it was more of the same after that. The offense struggled for much of the game as Pickett missed some throws that stalled drives.
Karl Roser / Pittsburgh Steelers
Steelers 2023 first round pick Broderick Jones makes his first career start at right tackle to help spark some life into the Steelers offense in Week 9
In the Friday morning following the game, ESPN analyst Dan Graziano was on Get Up talking about the Steelers offense and the historical season they are having. Not historical in the sense you might imagine, however. The 2023 Steelers are now the 34th team to be out-gained in terms of total yards in each of the first 8 games of the season. The historical part, is that they are the lone team to have a winning record during that stretch of abysmal offense.
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Of the 33 other teams that have also started the season on such a sour note, only one of them managed to finish the season with a winning record. That team? The 2022 Pittsburgh Steelers. This stat, as well as the Steelers' success, had Graziano flabbergasted by what the team is able to do.
"It's a magic trick," said Graziano on the Steelers managing to pull out victories. "There is no other way to explain it. Football is a ground acquisition game. The point is to gain yards, move the ball forward. In literally every game they are worse at that than their opponent, and yet they're somehow 5-3. It makes no sense."
Well when you put it like that, it does have to make us question how this team is consistently performing so bad in terms of yardage, yet still winning games. Despite the offense struggling immensely in terms of consistently moving the ball, they are doing at least one thing well. They have the second lowest turnover percentage in the league, which means they are not giving other teams short fields to work with.
Karl Roser / Pittsburgh Steelers
Steelers offseason acquisition Kwon Alexander record the game sealing interception to ice the game against the Tennessee Titans in Week 9
Along with the offense holding onto the ball, the defense has been great at taking it away from opposing offenses as they have the third-highest mark in the league. That paired with the Steelers defense having one of the better red zone defenses in the league, which makes their opponent settle for field goals, results in them being able to keep games close and pull them out in the end.
While Head Coach, Mike Tomlin gets a lot of heat at times (some justified and some not), there is no doubting that he has them prepared to handle the high-pressure situations and perform well in them. Graziano didn't hesitate to praise Tomlin for his ability to have the Steelers ready to pull out these narrow victories despite everything saying they should lose.
"Mike Tomlin is a Hall of Fame coach. If ever the Steelers got tired of him, teams would fire their coaches to line up and try to hire him. There is nobody better at consistently week in and week out making sure their team is ready to play the game. They're literally good at nothing other than winning the game."
It is crazy to think that the Steelers, both in 2022 and 2023, are in such unique company being the only team to be able to win games despite losing the yardage battle consistently. But ultimately, outside of trying to lower our anxiety levels, does anyone care as long as they keep winning?
Let us know what you think below about the Steelers consistently being outgained in games, yet coming out on top on the scoreboard!
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