With the Steelers’ first win of the season in the books, Pittsburgh has something to cheer about again. Holding a revitalized Jets team to six points at the Meadowlands is something to feel good about, especially with the Jets coming off an impressive win at Atlanta the week before.
The Steelers now have shown that they are capable of making noise in the AFC again after a hard fought win. The offense finally taking care of the ball and the defense finally forcing a couple takeaways should act as a confidence boost for the players.
Looking forward to the next game, the Steelers play division rival and Super Bowl champions Baltimore Ravens who just came off a bad loss on their home turf to the Green Bay Packers. The Ravens have shown they lost an edge after dropping to .500 and losing some major personnel on both sides of the football this offseason. Not to mention, their $100 million dollar man Joe Flacco is not playing up to expectations.
On top of this game, three of the next four opponents the Steelers face are .500 or sub .500 teams which plays in the Steelers favor. Also, playing in a division that has not lived up to expectations this year helps the Steelers’ chances. The Bengals seem to be a good team on paper, but when they come on the field, they are turnover prone. They barely escaped a disaster this week when the Bills rallied to force the game into overtime with a practice squad quarterback.
The Browns have exceeded expectations this year even while trading their star running back Trent Richardson; they are 3-3 but dropped a game at home to Detroit after leading half the game 17-7 at home. The Steelers should be able to put up a fight with teams now, and if they keep playing like they did against New York, they can actually win this division.
The reasons for this is because the Steelers decided to make different moves now. They gave Ziggy Hood’s starting job to Cam Heyward who played solid and helped generate a pass rush from his side of the football. Ben Roethlisberger played his best game ever since coming off his injury last year.
Before Roethlisberger got injured last year, he was up for MVP contention; after his injury, he became turnover prone and a little sloppy. After completing 76 percent of his passes against a good Jets team and embarrassing one of the best cornerbacks in the game in Antonio Cromartie, Roethlisberger proved that he still got it.
Another reason is that the Steelers limited the big plays while getting the big plays. With a great catch that set the Jets up with a field goal going into halftime, the Steelers responded right on their opening drive on offense by hitting Emmanuel Sanders with a huge touchdown to put them up 16-6. The Jets never scored after that blow and the defense locked down and stopped the Jets offense on crucial situations.
With only a 1-4 record, the Steelers have gotten off to a slow start, but with the talent and the team finally jelling along to go with a weak division, the Steelers still have a legitimate shot at the playoffs.