Football in The Burgh At The (Approximate) Quarter Pole

Pitt has played five games, the Steelers four, so it's time to take a look at the State of the Union of Pittsburgh Football.

First, the Steelers.

After a sloppy, but encouraging overtime win over the defending AFC Champion Bengals in the season opener, the Steelers have lost three games in a row, are 1-3 and in last place in the AFC North.  In truth, it has become apparent that this 2022 edition of Rooney U is just not a very good team, made even more so since that have played the last three games without their best player, linebacker T.J. Watt.  You can find all sorts of places to point fingers....the offensive line is poor, OC Matt Canada is a dunderhead, Mike Tomlin is a bigger dunderhead, Mitch Trubisky is who we thought he was.  I could go on.

However, in yesterday's terrible loss to the Jets, a ray of light appeared in the person of the first round draft pick.

Yep,  at halftime, with his team down 10-6 and needing a spark, Tomlin gave the car keys to Pitt's Kenny Pickett.  Pickett did indeed provide that spark, completing passes, several of them to rookie George Pickens, whom had appeared to be invisible when Canada was calling the plays for Trubisky, laughing when he got knocked on his ass by a Jets lineman (after completing a pass downfield), and scoring two rushing TD's himself.   On the downside, he threw three interceptions, including one that came on a poorly thrown pass, a pass that never should have been thrown, which the Jets used to begin their game winning touchdown drive. That was a bad interception to be sure, but this loss fell squarely on a defense that couldn't get off the field in the fourth quarter while allowing the Jets, another bad team, to drive the field twice for touchdowns that produced a 24-20 come from behind win for them.

It is apparent to me, among many, that the Steelers aren't going anywhere this season, post-season-wise, so it becomes obvious that if Pickett is going to be your quarterback of the future, as you would hope your first round draft pick will be, you let him play the rest of the season.  We've all read in recent weeks how Peyton Manning and Troy Aikman spent their rookie seasons at the helm of double digit loss teams, and if I recall correctly (too lazy to look it up) the Steelers won and five and six games in Terry Bradshaw's first two seasons.   If Pickett is the guy that we all think that he is, he will take his lumps, learn from them, and grow into the Franchise QB that the Steelers think he will become.

As for the coaches,  I'm a fan of Mike Tomlin, and if he experiences his first losing season in 16 years as the HC, then so be it.  It happens, and he's earned the right to shake it off and get better next year,  As for Matt Canada, I'm not a coach so I can't say whether he's a good or a bad coach.  He's forgotten more about football than I'll ever know.  That said, some of the offensive play calling sent into Mitch Trubisky has been bewildering, to say the least.

The 1-3 Steeles now head into a brutal stretch of scheduling: @Bills, Bucs, @Dolphins, and @Eagles.  Most people are conceding that the Steelers will be 1-7 after that stretch.  However, I'm willing to bet that they will win at least one of those games.  It may only be one game, but I predict that they will not go 0-4 in that stretch.

Then there is the Pitt Panthers.

After an exhilarating win over West Virginia in the season opener, Pitt won two of the next three and took a 3-1 record into Saturday's first conference game of the season.  They were at home against a Georgia Tech team that was in shambles, having fired their coach just five days earlier.  Pitt was a 21.5 point favorite.   And they redefined the derisive term "Pitting" by losing that game 26-21.  Despite losing their quarterback to the pros and their best wideout to the transfer portal, Pitt had hoped to present a rigorous defense of last season's ACC Championship.   They still may, but at this point, that appears to be a long shot.

Oh, and the Robert Morris Colonials are 0-4.

Tough season in western PA, football-wise.