It’s hard to act as if there isn’t at least some sense of pessimism around the Pittsburgh Steelers right now. After a hopeful start to the year and a big early divisional lead, the Steelers have lost three of four and now only lead the AFC North by one game. However, Pat Freiermuth is trying to keep perspective. He hasn’t forgotten that the Steelers do still have the divisional lead, and he doesn’t think anyone else in the locker room is panicking either.
“We got the right guys in the locker room to get this thing going in the right direction. Again, we’re still in the lead in the division. We know what this game means; Sunday, it’s very important. And so, we’re looking this week to get it fixed. Nobody’s looking in the past,” Freiermuth said Wednesday via Steelers.com. “No one’s panicking, we just gotta continue to work.”
It’s good not to feel a sense of panic. However, there has to be at least some sense of urgency in that building. With Lamar Jackson healthy, the Ravens have now won three straight games and have a cakewalk of a schedule in the near future. Playing Cleveland, the New York Jets and Cincinnati, their next three games are all winnable.
The Steelers do have a winnable game against the Bengals this weekend, but it’s far from guaranteed, as they’ve already lost to them this season. Then the Steelers play the Bears, who have won five of their last six. And to cap off that brutal stretch, they play Buffalo right after. The Steelers failed to give themselves a cushion when they had the chance. Now they have to fight off the Ravens and potentially even the Bengals while playing a tough schedule.
Things would be a lot more encouraging if the offense didn’t look so anemic during last Sunday’s loss. The Steelers just can’t get anything going with DK Metcalf since no other receivers are getting open. And because they’ve fallen behind early in each of their last three losses, they haven’t run the ball as much as they’d like to either.
There’s no panic yet, but the problems are there. Even Pat Freiermuth himself alluded to the receiving corps not being open enough. Winning fixes everything. And the Steelers will need to start doing that before panic and negative vibes really start to set in.
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