Surprise: Tampa Bay game key to season
capitalized on a severely wounded Philadelphia Eagles offense in Game 2. Ben Roethlisberger and Antonio Brown will rekindle a little magic of their own, or, as Antonio might put it, “step into the light of divinity” together.
Ryan Fitzpatrick will strike for a few more huge plays — he’s playing the Steelers, after all — but you can’t live on those forever.
So yes, the Steelers will win.
The Steelers better win, and not just because of the math regarding 0-2-1. There is more to it. Look at the schedule.
Projecting future opponents in the NFL can be a fool’s errand, but this schedule cannot possibly break as favorably as last year’s did. Barring unforeseen circumstances — and, granted, the NFL provides tons of those — it figures to stiffen considerably.
This seemingly would have been a good year to bank wins early. The Steelers still might. But all they’ve banked so far are a tie in Cleveland and six touchdown passes in Patrick Mahomes’ career stat line.
Last year was exceptional. The Steelers were supposed to face Aaron Rodgers, Andrew Luck and Deshaun Watson and faced none of them. Their good fortune began early when they encountered a badly overmatched DeShone Kizer making his NFL debut, followed by surprise starter Case Keenum (before he got rolling) and Mike Glennon on his last legs in Chicago (a game they lost).
And that was before Jacoby Brissett, Brett Hundley and T.J. Yates (and, yes, Taylor Heinicke).
The only teams the Steelers played that were significantly better than expected were the Jacksonville Jaguars and Minnesota Vikings — and the Vikings were beset by a weird injury to quarterback Sam Bradford the week of the game. Most of the teams were worse than projected.
This year, the Steelers already have played the Browns, who are guaranteed to not go 0-16 again, and now face a surprising (stunning?) team Monday night — the 2-0 Bucs, who were reasonably expected to start 0-3.
What’s more, the Steelers won a bunch of games last year on late field goals. Four out of five in one stretch. That doesn’t happen two years in a row, and as I’m sure you’ve noticed, the pattern has already begun to correct itself in the form of a freaked-out kicker.
What I see, as I look ahead, is a tougher division with the Cincinnati Bengals, Browns and maybe even the Baltimore Ravens improved. I see Matt Ryan, Tom Brady, Cam Newton, the great Blake Bortles (who killed the Steelers even when he wasn’t the great Blake Bortles), Philip Rivers and Drew Brees. I see a game in Oakland, where bad things have happened against even the worst Raiders teams, and a game in Denver, which is rarely easy.
In other words, this is going to be a slog. Not an unsurvivable one, but a slog nonetheless. I pointed out to defensive end Cam Heyward that fans are growing somewhat concerned about a defense that has surrendered 4,000 points in its past two home games.
I wondered why he was convinced it will get better.
“Because we can’t play any worse,” he said, laughing. “I know the sky fell last week, but it can’t stay fallen. We move on. There’s too much football to be played.” And those fan concerns? “I appreciate them being concerned,” Heyward said. “But we’ll take it from here.”
They better.