The Steelers’ Best Football May Still Be Ahead of Them

PHOTO BY ALYSA RUBIN/PITTSBURGH STEELERS

The Steelers’ bye week offered a chance for introspection, an opportunity of which inside linebacker Patrick Queen took full advantage.

“Lotta time to think about life, about ball,” Queen acknowledged.

He also came to a few conclusions, the most significant of which might well be “that I picked up my play the last few weeks, but knowing how that looks and knowing the consistency level that needs to come with it,” Queen continued.

“I think the best thing for me is just, whatever I gotta do to mentally and physically prepare myself to do that every single week, I’m gonna take full advantage and do what needs to be done.”

Queen had been perhaps the best player on the field in the Steelers’ 27-6 thumping of the Browns on Nov. 1 at Acrisure Stadium. His stat line included 12 tackles, one-and-a-half sacks, a tackle for a loss, two quarterback hits, one pass defensed and a forced fumble.

It had been a different story on Oct. 1 in Cleveland. That was the night Queen got blocked three times on the same play by rookie wide receiver K.C. Concepcion on what eventually became a 28-yard touchdown jaunt by running back Jaleel McLaughlin (who?). It was quite possibly the Steelers’ worst defensive snap of the season.

It’s consistency they’re seeking, individually and collectively, a quest that will resume on Sunday night in Cincinnati.

Finding it is how they can get better, particularly in lieu of acquiring a reinforcement or two in advance of Monday’s 4 p.m.trade deadline.

Queen is the defensive personification of what the Steelers have been versus what they may yet become.

On offense, it’s DK Metcalf.

Physically, he’s the “beastmode” of wide receivers. In Seattle, that translated into averages of 1,054 receiving yards, 73 receptions and eight touchdown catches a season through six seasons. But through eight games this season, Metcalf has 33 catches, 378 receiving yards and one score.

Worse, the Steelers have thrown the ball to him 64 times and the result has been a completed pass just 51.6 percent of the time (down from 59.6 percent in Metcalf’s first season with the Steelers and 61.1 percent in his last season with the Seahawks).

He was never going to be Fred Biletnikoff, but every ball shouldn’t be a 50/50 ball for a player of Metcalf’s caliber. He’s capable of more receptions and fewer drops.

On special teams, that guy is kicker Chris Boswell.

He used to be accurately perceived as almost an automatic good, but this season Boswell has already missed five field goal attempts, as many as he missed all of last season. The new standard for kickers in the NFL all of a sudden is “don’t miss.” (Ask the Bengals’ Evan McPherson, who is 12-for-12 this season, including 6-for-6 from 50-plus yards away.)

When Boswell’s Boswell again, the Steelers will be better.

They should also expect to be better on the offensive line. The current fivesome started six of the first eight games together but didn’t begin playing as a collective until week three (against Cincinnati, coincidentally). The Steelers have averaged 24.8 carries. 5.3 yards per rushing attempt and 132.3 yards per game on the ground in those last six games. They can build on that.

The secondary should be counted upon to be better in the season’s unofficial second half than it was in the first, if only because rookie Robert Spears-Jennings and veteran DeShon Elliott have sub-package roles now and Rayshawn Jenkins no longer does (and, thankfully, is no longer on the team).

Spears-Jennings is one of eight rookies to play significant snaps in the pre-bye Cleveland rematch. There’s always a concern one or more might hit the “rookie wall” at some point. It’s just as plausible the freshmen will continue to get better as they get more experience and become more comfortable.

Even Aaron Rodgers, who turns 43 on Dec. 2, is capable of better in terms of his signature ball-placement and accuracy. Rodgers is playing winning football but may still have another level toward that end.

Last but certainly not least, the familiarity and cohesion between the players and the new coaching staff in terms of how the Steelers are playing, and how the Steelers are operating day-
to-day and week-to-week, should continue to improve.

Will the record reflect all of the above moving forward?

That’s why they play the games.

There are still plenty of reasons for what lies ahead to be embraced, even if they didn’t make a trade.

“We know where we are and I know who we are and we’re a team that can continue to improve, and that’s exciting,” head coach Mike McCarthy insisted at the outset of this week.

That, too, is worth a little reflection in advance of the upcoming showdown in Cincinnati.