Thursday night shock.
Despite it being one of the easier games left, Pittsburgh were stunned on Thursday Night Football against Cleveland.
That 24-19 loss to the ‘Dawg Pound’ saw their record drop to 8-3.
The ferocious second half blizzard has let to the game being referred to as the ‘Snow Globe’. The weather certainly played a part in proceedings.
Pittsburgh will be hoping this game will act as a reality check and prove to be a springboard for success. But did this game bring a glass ceiling into focus for the Steelers which will limit them come playoff time ?
Two steps forward and one step back
After the two most impressive victories of the season against Washington and Baltimore, morale was at an all-time high.
Proving they could play complimentary football, all units shone brightly at different times against teams with winning records. The wins seemed to give a favourable outlook as to how they would fair in January.
Mike Tomlin will inevitably be a Hall of Fame head coach, however in recent years the Steelers have been known to drop the occasional clanger to bad teams.
Defeats to the Jets and Patriots in recent seasons in spite of being betting favourites are evidence of this.
Silver Lining
Key factors in these defeats were the fact they were out-gained in yardage and did not win the turnover battle.
Against Cleveland, however, Pittsburgh out-gained them in air yards and rushing yards, forced more turnovers, were more efficient on third down and won the time of possession battle.
Typically this would be a recipe for success in 99% of NFL games, but unfortunately this proved to be an outlier.
Cleveland out-gained their expected points by five, in comparison to Pittsburgh who were minus five on their expected points per profootballreference.com.
This again paints the picture of just how unlucky Pittsburgh were in this game.
In a season as long and grinding as the NFL, good teams inevitably prosper. However as the saying goes, sometimes it is better to be lucky than good.
With a top 10 defense and an offense which has sparked into life, Pittsburgh are a much more capable team than recent years.
Now Steelers fans will be hoping that lady luck can shine on them come January.
