The Pittsburgh Steelers have managed to grab four wins out of five to start the year. They haven’t all been pretty, and most have come in some fortunate ways. All in all, there isn’t much for Steelers fans to complain about regarding their team’s start.
For Colin Cowherd, there is. He expects the Steelers to knock off the Cincinnati Bengals tonight, but thinks fans need to understand the context behind their potential 5-1 start.
“You’re probably gonna be 5-1,” Cowherd said Thursday on FS1’s The Herd. “And I just want you to add a little perspective, realizing you have beaten Justin Fields, Dillon Gabriel, Carson Wentz, and 40-year old Joe Flacco. I’m just asking for a little perspective. Your first five games, all green lights driving to work… This is a Mike Tomlin trend, going back to like 2020. That he’s very emotional, very rah-rah, very inspiring. And then that stuff wears off by Week 11, and it comes down to scheme, health, quarterback play. You have played one good team, Pittsburgh. Sam Darnold didn’t even play well, and they [Seahawks] blew you out in Pittsburgh.”
Cowherd has been a little more positive on the Steelers recently. But his take doesn’t make a ton of sense. It’s not like the Steelers are rattling off wins against playoff contenders week in and week out, but to say the Seahawks are the only good team they’ve played simply isn’t true. The Steelers went on the road to New England and beat a Patriots team that’s currently 4-2, just like Seattle, and leads their division ahead of the Buffalo Bills. And even in their loss to Seattle, the Steelers were in the game until the last couple of minutes.
At the beginning of the season, his argument made more sense. When the Steelers could barely beat the Jets, it did seem like a win that was unsustainable. But it’s hard to deny their wins have gotten much better as of recent. The Steelers dominated Cleveland last week, and dominated Minnesota for 55 minutes two weeks before that. Neither of those teams look like massive threats, but the Steelers controlled those games, and closed them out the way a good team should.
Cowherd also alleges that Mike Tomlin’s team’s typically start strong and fade. In recent years, especially last year, that was very much true. But this isn’t last year. And Cowherd himself has mentioned how he believes the Steelers’ offense is more ‘real’ this season. So it’s unclear where he’s coming from, alluding to the scheme breaking down as the year goes on after he’s already praised that scheme as recent as this week.
The Steelers simply have to answer these questions themselves, before Cowherd starts to believe in them. But this does feel like an example of analysts moving the goalposts with the Steelers starting better than they expected. He himself believed the Steelers needed to take advantage of their early schedule. Now that they have, he’s finding something else to critique them about.
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