What We Know So Far

 

The Steelers improved to 4-3 after beating the Houston Texans on Monday Night in a must win game. In doing so, many things were further proven if not brought to light after the victory.

First and foremost, this team is still not consistent. Their season continues in an every other week fashion as they have not won or lost two consecutive games yet.   

They showed they have the ability to look extremely bad, as they did at the start of the game, falling behind 13-0 but then showed they have the talent to be really good, scoring 24 unanswered points to go up 24-13 and ultimately winning 30-23. All of this further illuminated that this team does not have an identity yet.

It was also proven that the defense lacks significant depth across most positions. The linebackers in particular seem to be in big trouble with Jarvis Jones and Ryan Shazier out. Nobody has been able to fill those positions adequately yet and that’s a testament to the lack of talent at the position.  Lawrence Timmons is a phenomenal player and Jason Worilds has a lot of talent but beyond that, the black and gold have very few options to play the position at the moment.   

We also continued to see that the signing of Cortez Allen to a long term deal was a mistake. For some reason Kevin Colbert and Mike Tomlin elected to let Keenan Lewis walk before last season in favor of Allen. Allen has done nothing but get beat over and over again to the point where he has lost his starting job. Now as a reserve and coming off the bench vs. Houston; he still couldn’t make a play when necessary. He’s so bad that he shouldn’t be on this roster in 2015, at least not at this salary.

On the offensive side of the ball, the talent is there, LeVeon Bell, Antonio Brown and Big Ben are all studs. They can play with anyone in this league and just need others around them to do their jobs, occasionally, to provide some help. 

With all that said, Antonio Brown is one of the most dynamic players in the league and it’s time Tomlin takes him off punt returns. Sure, he’s an All Pro return man but they black and gold cannot afford to have him hurt in a wild play like a punt return. He’s far too valuable. They need to put Dri Archer back there or anyone else really.  If they don’t, they could pay dearly.

Brown is the clear number one receiver but the number two spot needs to go to Martavis Bryant. I’ve been calling for that move since training camp. He reminds me a lot of Plaxico Burress and he can not only stretch the field but he can go up and get the ball in the red zone or third down. He’s a true threat and finally the Steelers activated him and he caught a touchdown on his first NFL reception. He must start from here forward because Markus Wheaton has proven over the last few weeks that he doesn’t know what he’s doing. He and Big Ben are not on the same page, at all. 

The team is very young and needs leadership. They have the ability to be good if they can gel and the veterans show the young guys what it takes to win. But with the youth on this team and the apparent lack of depth, without leadership, should this team lose a few games in a row, they could completely come off the tracks.

This season has been shaky thus far and despite the good looking win on Monday, it appears to me it will continue to be an up and down ride. The upcoming game against the Colts is very critical in measuring just how quickly this team can grow, gel and learn from success or fail from arrogance.