Mike Tomlin said the Steelers "played better" and "more efficiently" in their 27-19 win over the Denver Broncos on Sunday. I'll buy that. They did do some things better than they had in the past few weeks, but I'm not sure by how much.
The Steelers certainly ran the ball more and with more efficiency than they had in any other game this year. And the defense made some key stops down around the goal line to keep the Broncos at arm's length. There is something to be said for that.
They're now 2-3 and back from the brink of disaster. It is indeed something to build on, but I also have to agree with Tomlin when he added "time will tell our story." That's because I have no idea what beating the Broncos actually means, and I have the same questions in my head about the Steelers now as I did before the game.
I want to join the chorus of people who cling to any sort of positive development with the Steelers as a sign that the old gunslinger, Ben Roethlisberger, has one more run of leading the Steelers to glory in him. But that is just pie in the sky stuff from his fan club.
I can't go there because I still see a gimpy-armed quarterback, more lucky than good Sunday; a bad secondary and an offensive line whose ceiling is somewhere between mediocre and, well, mediocre. I saw a team that took advantage of the fact that the Broncos stink, but didn't really do a whole lot different than in its previous three games.
Again, credit where credit is due — Roethlisberger made some nice throws and deserves credit for hanging in there and fighting despite all of his injuries. But to claim he played a great game — or even a good game — would be to turn a blind eye to the fact that the Broncos should have notched at least four interceptions on him and could have had at least six.
Three of those almost interceptions hit Broncos defenders in the hands and two of them would have no doubt been pick sixes. If Denver's defenders weren't channeling their inner Edward Scissorhands, who knows what would have happened in this game. I know, I know "if ifs were fifths, we'd all be drunk," but the fact remains Roethlisberger made a lot of bad decisions but this week got away with them.
Najee Harris is a stud and anyone who can't see this kid's talent is blind. He is the best running back the Steelers have had since Le'Veon Bell, and if the Steelers are going to win, they need to ride him. He ran 23 times for 122 yards and a touchdown. The only reason he didn't get to 30 carries is that he had some cramps in the fourth quarter.
The defense was stout for much of the game but they had a lot of help from the Broncos, whose offense tried to go stone age — three yards and a cloud of dust — for the first few quarters. That made it easy for the Steelers to stop them. And even when they got a big running play to set up first-and-goal from the 2 in the second quarter, they screwed it up by taking an idiotic penalty for spiking the ball.
Once the Broncos got behind and needed to throw, though, here is what they discovered: the Steelers secondary can be picked apart. Josh Allen knew that but missed a number of wide open receivers. Derek Carr figured that out, Joe Burrow figured that out and Aaron Rodgers figured that out ---but somehow it took the Broncos coaching staff almost three quarters to do the same.
Bridgewater made big throw after big throw in the fourth quarter and nearly brought the Broncos back to win. He was 24-of-38 for 288 yards and two touchdowns and he had a 39-yard touchdown pass to pull the Broncos to within a touchdown. That is the third time in five games the Steelers got beat deep for touchdowns, and again, if Allen doesn't miss a few easy throws it would have been the fourth time.
The Steelers are a resilient bunch that really deserves a lot of credit for fighting through adversity to find a way to win. They made enough plays to hang on and there is something to be said about winning a game, any game.
But we came into the game with questions about Roethlisberger, and I don't think he answered any of them. He still can't move. He still missed too many throws, and he still is settling for too much underneath stuff. We had many questions about the offensive line, and while it was a little better, it still committed too many penalties and Roethlisberger took too many hits.
We also came into the game wondering if the Steelers' secondary is good enough, and nothing I saw Sunday clears that up at all. Yes, Cam Sutton was out, but Joe Haden got beat some, James Pierre had a rough day and Bridgewater didn't seem to face a lot of pressure, either. This defense can be picked apart by a good quarterback and that spells trouble as the Steelers' season moves forward.
The Steelers didn't really prove anything Sunday we didn't know and didn't change my thoughts about who they are. They are basically the same team we have seen for the first month of the season. The only difference is the Broncos were too inept to take advantage of their miscues the way good teams have and will.
