Steelers showing ‘relentless’ drive
After slow start, they’re now in middle of playoff hunt
PITTSBURGH — Pat Freiermuth was talking about the entirety of the Steelers roster. The rookie tight end might as well have been talking about himself.
“We’re relentless,” Freiermuth said Monday night after a taut 29-27 win over the Bears boosted the Steelers to 5-3 as the season reaches its midway point. “We can play. We can feed off each other.”
And perhaps just as importantly, they can rely on each other. The Steelers have ripped off four straight victories following a 1-3 start and finds themselves closer to the top of the topsy-turvy AFC than the bottom, heady territory considering how bleak things looked a month ago.
Yet rather than panic — which coach Mike Tomlin said repeatedly was never an option — the Steelers dug in. The offense stopped turning the ball over. The running game developed traction behind rookie Najee Harris. Freiermuth supplanted Eric Ebron as the starting tight end and immediately became one of Ben Roethlisberger’s favorite targets.
The 6-foot-5, 23-year-old hauled in two touchdowns against the Bears, the team’s first multi-score game by a first-year tight end since Heath Miller did it in 2005. Freiermuth’s production is emblematic of a rookie class tasked with keeping the Steelers competitive as the sunset draws near on Roethlisberger’s remarkable career.
It’s a lot of pressure, though Freiermuth and Harris hardly seemed bothered. They scored all three Steelers touchdowns Monday night and have become two of the most vital components of a unit that may be slowly but surely finding its way.
Whether the Steelers are legitimate contenders or simply the byproduct of a soft portion of their schedule — only one of the victories during their current run came against a team with a winning record — remains to be seen. Yet they’re definitely in the mix. For now, they’ll take it.
“I don’t even know records of (other) teams,” Roethlisberger said. “I don’t have time to focus on anybody else but us. We talk about it every week, we dug ourselves a little hole. So we’re just trying to get out of it. So, obviously, that’s all I’m focused on is us.”