The Steelers did exactly what they need to do to win games on Sunday, and not surprisingly, they won.
The Steelers beat the Saints 20-10, and I don’t know if I could have drawn up a better game plan for what the Steelers need to do in order to have a chance of winning this year.
In fact, the formula they used — run the ball with authority, play great defense, win the turnover battle — is in general a winning formula at all levels of football. If you do those three things, you will win a lot of football games. But I am not trying to be Captain Obvious here.
There are many teams who don’t need to do those three things in order to win because they have an elite quarterback. And teams with an elite quarterback have a large margin for error. They can overcome turnovers, they can overcome big deficits, they don’t need the help of short fields to score points, and they can move the offense without the help of running the football.
We have seen this for years, and it is no coincidence that teams with elite quarterbacks have a huge advantage in terms of making the playoffs, and it’s why so many elite quarterbacks have a Super Bowl ring as part of their collection.
Elite quarterbacks can cover a multitude of flaws and mistakes. But not every team has one.
The Steelers not only don’t have an elite quarterback, they have a rookie in Kenny Pickett who is struggling to find his footing. Pickett is talented and will likely figure it out, but until such time, he is not capable of winning games on his own.
That is why the formula for the Steelers has to be the old-school formula for teams with “game managing” quarterbacks. They need their quarterback to make enough plays to help them win and avoid the big mistakes that make them lose.
Pickett has been too mistake prone to this point in the season, mostly because he is young and trying too hard to make things happen. He has forced some throws into places that ended in disaster. He has taken some bad sacks trying to make things happen. And he has made some decisions a more experienced quarterback would not have.
It is clear in the two weeks (the Steelers were coming off an open week) since their last game, the coaching staff drilled Pickett on the idea of throwing the ball away, making quicker decisions and protecting the football.
He threw the ball away more than he had. He got hit and sacked six times, but that had more to do with offensive line woes than him holding the ball too long. And he didn’t throw any interceptions.
Only one of the sacks seemed to be his fault, as he held the ball too long. But at least he just took the sack and didn’t try to throw the ball somewhere occupied by Saints defenders.
Pickett also made enough throws to keep the offense moving, but he didn’t force anything that wasn’t there. He did make a really nice throw down the sideline to Diontae Johnson for a 36-yard gain, but other than that, most of his throws were safe and controlled passes — and that’s OK.
As a result of Pickett’s improved decision making, the Steelers’ defense got to defend the long field almost every time the Saints got the football. They weren’t put in the position of trying to stop an offense on a short field, and that made for a very long day for the Saints offense.
The defense gave up a few plays here and there, but it also made big plays — two interceptions and two sacks — and because it had long fields to defend, it was able to recover from some of the big plays the Saints managed to make.
The Steelers’ defense with T.J. Watt back should be able to play the kind of defense they played against the Saints. The Steelers aren’t likely to give up only 186 yards like they did Sunday, but they should be able to have a lot of success against most of the offenses they are going to face down the stretch. If the defense can hold its own and not be put in bad situations, the Steelers will have a chance to win each week.
The final piece of the puzzle is the run game, and clearly the Steelers got that going Sunday in a way we have been waiting to see for years. The Steelers ran 43 times for 217 yards and just wore down the Saints. They were able to kill clock — and keep the defense fresh — and possess the ball for 38 minutes. They were able to minimize the need for Pickett to make plays, and that is a big reason they were able to win despite only scoring 20 points.
This is not a formula every team needs to win, but it is a formula the Steelers need to follow strictly every week. Clearly the quality of their opponent — the Saints are bad, were missing eight starters and coming off a short week of prep — enabled them to do these things a lot easier than it will be in some games.
But at least for one game, regardless of the opponent, they proved they can do it and that it is indeed a winning formula. Whether they can do it week in and week out is a different story, but Sunday proved it is the way they need to play in order to win until Pickett proves he can be the elite quarterback they hope he will become.
Paul Zeise: pzeise@post-gazette.com or Twitter: @paulzeise
First Published: November 14, 2022, 7:33 p.m.
