On Sunday, the Pittsburgh Steelers found a way to start off miserable, finish strong and beat the Los Angeles Rams 24-17. This team has become a modern version of the cardiac kids with these slow starts and fast finishes but the win moves the Steelers to 4-2 and keeps them only a half-game behind the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC North.
Here are six big takeaways from the win.
The run game is back
We predicted Najee Harris would have a big game and he did. But more than that, Pittsburgh stuck with the run game and found some success when the offensive line did its job. Not to mention the Steelers ended up with three rushing touchdowns, bringing the season total to…three.
Start soft, finish strong
This is who the Steelers are. It’s time we all just accept it, take plenty of Tums on gameday and hope spotting the opponent points every week before storming back late will work It is an awful way to play but clearly this is all the Steelers have.
What do they do with Patrick Peterson?
It was an ugly performance for cornerback Patrick Peterson. He’s a great guy, a leader and mentor for the young secondary but he’s looking more and more like a liability on the field.
We still believe in Kenny Pickett
There was a point in Sunday’s game when it felt like everything was falling apart for Kenny Pickett. But this is every week. Pickett, like the rest of the offense finally got things on track late in the second half and gave us hope he can still be the man for this team.
Steelers receivers making great plays and dumb ones
Sometimes you don’t know whether to cheer for or scream at Steelers receiver Diontae Johnson and George Pickens. Both players came up huge in the second half for Pittsburgh but both got really dumb unsportsmanlike penalties as well. They will be minimized because of the outcome of the game but definite lack of maturity and discipline by both guys.
Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good
There is no grand conspiracy here but there were some very questionable calls late in Sunday’s win. Most of them balanced out but no doubt that final first down by Kenny Pickett was questionable. But after a taunting call on Diontae Johnson earlier that forced a replay of a down that was very questionable, it all works out the way it should.
