SCB Steelers Quick Hitters: The ‘Next Two Weeks’ Edition

Good Monday to you Steelers fans.

Well? How would you feel about our beloved Black and Gold playing any of the other three divisional opponents right now? The good news is that we don’t this coming week but two games with Cincinnati and one each at Baltimore and at Cleveland await the Steelers. The Ravens dismantled a really good Seattle team yesterday 37-3 behind almost 300 yards of rushing. The Browns (granted they were playing a rookie QB making his first start) shutout the Cardinals 27-0 and then the Bengals beat the Bills on Sunday Night Football 24-18. That puts the Ravens at 7-2 and everyone else at 5-3. Things should start to get interesting this week as Cleveland travels to Baltimore. The Ravens won earlier in the season at Cleveland. The Bengals get the Texans and C.J. Stroud at home while the Steelers will entertain the Packers. Week 11 will likely separate the top from the bottom as the Ravens host the Bengals on Thursday Night while the Steelers travel to Cleveland. I feel very confident when I say the next two weeks will go a long way towards deciding the AFC North Champs.

Pickens

I had some thoughts on Steelers’ wide receiver George Pickens yesterday after his rather “eventful” weekend.

Hard to Ignore

As Kenny Pickett continues to be a rather middling, NFL quarterback, it’s hard to ignore what’s going on around the league. Rookie C.J. Stroud threw for 470 yards and five touchdowns. Former Steeler and much traveled Josh Dobbs came off the bench to lead the Vikings to a win. Keep in mind he arrived in Minnesota just five days ago. What’s my point? It’s that Pickett needs to start putting up more offense regardless of who is coordinator is.

Flags Everywhere

To the fans of the NFL, the penalty flags are making the game less and less enjoyable. To the NFL itself, they love it. With every yellow hanky that flies, so to do the social media posts and hot takes across television. The Steelers have played in two straight games where officiating has been horrendously bad. Some calls favored the Steelers while some didn’t. I watched the Dallas-Philadelphia game yesterday and just shook my head at the number of calls. Roughing the passer can now be defined as ‘anytime the defender touches the QB’ and I’m not joking about this. Defensive holding/illegal contact calls could literally be called on any play but why and when these flags are thrown is beyond me. The subjectivity is off the charts. For old guys like me who thankfully grew up with this game when it truly was football it’s getting harder and harder to watch.

Pulling

Have you noticed the Steelers have been doing a lot more pulling of guards and tackles in the last few weeks? Go back and look at Najee Harris’ first quarter TD and you’ll see a terrific pull from Isaac Seumalo who leads Harris through the hole. I’m not sure who to credit for installing more of this type of run blocking but it’s proven to be more positive than negative so far. With Broderick Jones seemingly entrenched as the new right tackle I expect to see more pulling and trapping as the season wears on.