I think so. For years with the fading career of Big Ben, the Steelers have been dreadful, his leaving taking far too long, then last year with the unexpected pickup of Kenny Pickett after drafting a new 1st string QB, they looked pitiful and disjointed until the last few games towards the end when something big seemed to be finally coming together. But I had my doubts about how Picket's body would hold up.
The team is 90% new, with just a few senior players left from the Big Ben Era, for the past several years, they have been drafting key talent both offense and defense, over the winter they've added on a lot more, made some excellent and perspicuous pick ups, and it looks now that this season, the team is gelling on both sides of the ball in a big way, and they have real heart in the game finally, for good reason.
The Steelers now look to have an explosive offense with excellent QBing, superb receivers and TEs, a strong O line finally, and a very dominating defense in all registers from the D-line, secondary, to the deep end, and the standards are set very high. Further, both the general coaching and especially the offensive coaching seems to finally be crystallizing to surround a formidable offense utilizing all of the deep with a real deep threat!
PRESEASON:
WEEK ONE: The Steelers went to Tampa Bay and despite playing mostly their second and third string, fairly owned the Bucs and easily routed them with striking O plays right out of the gate on both sides of the ball, hammering them 27-17.
WEEK TWO, the Steelers just hosted the formidable Bills and Josh Allen. Despite the Bills being a contender for the Super Bowl the last few seasons, they looked like a chew toy in the hands of the Steelers. The Steelers 1st and 2nd string played the Bills 1st and 2nd string and made the Bills look like a deer in the headlights! In less than 5 opening minutes in the first quarter, the Steelers offense scored 14-0 points against them easily, going through them faster than crap through a goose. One of the biggest complaint against the Steelers for many years with Ben was very slow starts that looked unprepared and discombobulated taking the whole game to pull itself together to rally in desperation in the 4rth quarter to keep from losing.
Not any more. Past two weeks, the Steelers have exploded out of the gate.
The Steelers probably should have held the Bills to 27-7 or even 27-0, but for a bad snap late in the 4th quarter by a center who probably will be let go in any account, leading to a fumbled ball recovered by the Bills for short yardage! Otherwise, the Bills were held scoreless until the 4th quarter finally ending with 27-15 and the Steelers had 4 forced interception recoveries among many big plays. It was big Steeler plays one after the other by gulps and leaps from beginning to end for the 2nd week in a row with virtually everyone on the team contributing.
If this keeps up, and with royal talent in many positions now throughout both the O line and D line, the Steelers are going to be a team to watch this year. It looks like all aspects of the team are finally coming together at just the right time in a really big way for awesome and explosive offense and defensive talent able to stand up to ANYONE in the NFL.
You have been warned.
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