The Steelers a good team? Many games, that’s half right
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With a 6-6-1 record, by definition, the Pittsburgh Steelers are an average football team. They also have proven themselves to be half good.
A noticeable trend for the Steelers over the past two seasons perhaps came to a head during Thursday night’s game at Minnesota. The Steelers were dreadful in the first half. But in the second half, they had the look of a legitimate playoff-contending team.
And while the tale of two halves was as stark and obvious as ever Thursday, it’s a phenomenon the Steelers have shown often since the 2020 season opener.
“Some weeks, we start fast. Some weeks, we don’t,” quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said after the 36-28 loss at the Vikings. “I’m not really sure what the key is to it.”
No one else associated with the Steelers seems to know, either, judging by how long the trend has continued.
And while slow starts seem to be the focus, there are plenty of examples over the past 15 months when the Steelers started games fast but faltered badly down the stretch.
Among the 30 games played over the past two seasons, 15 reasonably could be defined as the Steelers playing one poor half and one strong half.
Eight times over the past two seasons, it’s been exhibited by simple math: The Steelers outscored an opponent by 10 or more points in one half of a game and were outscored by 10 or more points in the other.
The Steelers won five of their first seven such games this season before Thursday’s comeback fell short.
They also have fared well in similar games the past two seasons when they looked like world-beaters at one point and — as Fox analyst Troy Aikman put it Thursday — a “junior-league team” at others.
• On three occasions, it took until the start of the fourth quarter for momentum to swing one way or another. The Steelers trailed the Chargers, 27-10, after three quarters three weeks ago before going on a 27-14 run in the fourth quarter to nearly complete a wild comeback. Two weeks before that, a 20-6 Steelers lead was in peril when the Bears outscored them 21-9 in the final 15 minutes. In an October game against Denver, a 24-6 Steelers lead almost evaporated in the fourth.
• Twice last season, the Steelers woke up from a seeming slumber just before the halftime whistle and rallied against bad teams in the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants.
• The 2020 Broncos game was similar to the one played this year: A middling visiting team roared back from a halftime deficit (17-3) against the Steelers to make it close at the end (26-21).
• Just a week ago against the Ravens, the Steelers were down at the half and had just 93 yards of offense. They amassed 228 yards and 17 points in the second half to win.
“In a sense, it is frustrating,” tackle Dan Moore said after Thursday’s game of wild swings. “But it’s also, I wouldn’t say encouraging, but if we come out and start like we finished, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be on the other side at the end of the game.”
In five of eight games in 2020-21 that have had double-figure shifts in deficit/lead for the Steelers, it was the Steelers who started poorly and finished strong. They came all the way back to win against the Bills this year. It happened last season against the Colts and Ravens (in Baltimore), but they couldn’t overcome the bad starts in the playoffs against the Browns or Thursday against the Vikings.
Among the three bad endings of the eight, the only loss came against Washington in 2020. The Steelers held on to beat the Titans (2020) and Seahawks (this year) despite being outscored by at least 14 points in the second half of each.
The curious aspect is sometimes it’s the offense that’s equal parts inept and elite during the same game, whereas other times it’s a two-faced defense — and sometimes, both.
“Coming down the stretch, you (have to) play a full 60 minutes,” cornerback Cameron Sutton said. “The first snap can’t be the last.”
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