The list of factors pointing to a general sense of dysfunction engulfing the Pittsburgh Steelers, through last week and right up until just before Sunday’s kickoff, was long and exhaustive.
Where to start?
Offensive coordinator Matt Canada had just been fired, a significant development for any organization, but not notable enough, apparently, for it to have reached the ears of wide receiver George Pickens, who only found out when he came into work on Wednesday, a full 24 hours after the rest of the NFL universe discovered the news.
Come the weekend, Canada was already old hat, his spot in the news cycle replaced by multiple reports detailing a juicy altercation between receiver Diontae Johnson and safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, which erupted following the previous week’s defeat to the Cleveland Browns but took a few days to percolate its way into the public sphere.
And that Browns performance was sufficiently tepid, especially offensively, for the bad feelings to linger several days later, leading to uncomfortable reminders that it had been a whopping 58 games since the Steelers had compiled 400 offensive yards in a day.
Yet as a new week dawns and with Sunday’s victory over the Cincinnati Bengals in the books, the Steelers and head coach Mike Tomlin appear to have performed a minor miracle act, springing free of all the aforementioned issues with a leap and a bound and, somehow, heading forwards with a vastly improved outlook.
Just like that? Yeah, kind of.
In the first game without Canada, that 58-game streak was snapped, with 421 total yards put up by a combination of QB Kenny Pickett and aggressive running from Najee Harris, as the Bengals were dismissed, 16-10.
The spat between Johnson and Fitzpatrick had already been handled internally before it became public knowledge, to the point that the pair were describing the disagreement as a unifying experience by Sunday.
Will the Steelers make the playoffs?
Perhaps only Tomlin, 16 years into the job and having seen it all, could weather such a series of apparent storms so seamlessly and immediately burst out the other side in superb shape.
The head coach used Canada’s firing to patch up what he saw as a major flaw on the offense – Canada handling everything unilaterally – and effectively forced cooperation by installing Eddie Faulkner as offensive coordinator but Mike Sullivan as offensive playcaller, meaning more voices were naturally going to be involved in the process.
Last weekend’s victory wasn’t an error-free tour de force, and 16 points was only enough because of the team’s trademark defensive bite, but it did put the Steelers in buoyant shape in the AFC postseason picture. With a defense that has both star power and ferocity but has spent a painful amount of time on the field due to offensive woes, things look ready to fit into place nicely.
“I’m not trying to paint with a broad brush and act like ‘eureka,'” Tomlin told reporters. We did what we needed to do to win, and we will keep on pushing.”
Maybe Tomlin saw this coming. Maybe the “eureka” moment is for everyone else. Just take a look at how things now stand.
Only four teams have a better AFC record than the Steelers, but most significant of all is that Pittsburgh’s run-in is decidedly on the comfortable side. While the AFC North-leading Baltimore Ravens have the highest degree of difficulty in the NFL to look forward to, next up for Tomlin’s crew will be the 2-10 Arizona Cardinals and the 2-9 New England Patriots, who have played more limply than anyone over the past two months.
The upcoming list of quarterbacks that the defense will get after is as follows: Kyler Murray, Mac Jones, Gardner Minshew and Jake Browning. Having survived a testing week, the mood – and the horizon — is clearing.
“It was a lot of adversity, a lot of things going on, moving parts,” Pickett said. “It felt like a short week almost because when we got the news (about Canada) and how quick we all had to react to what happened and flush it and move on. Hats off to our guys who did that.”
Perhaps this is why Tomlin has stuck around so long. Much gets spoken about his record of never having had a losing season, a point of pride that was only narrowly retained by a late campaign revival last year.
Yet his true genius may be in taking scenarios and tribulations that would throw most programs off track, and finding ways to glide on through.
That’s what the Steelers are doing right now. Barring any mishaps over the next couple of weeks, a playoff spot might be all but assured come mid-December. From dysfunction to smooth sailing, just like that.
