Looking back at this past '22 season

it is a league of nobody's.

you HAVE to win those games, the Q is can we battle with the best

and right now we cannot. of the 14 teams going to the playoffs, we have many holes / cracks that they would exploit to beat us. Certainly the top 10, we could not hang with. those final seeds, on the fringes - well, that is where we are.....

 

Personally I thought this where I thought the Steelers would be to start the year 9-8.

I knew they weren't great by a long shot, but I knew their roster wasn't complete trash like some maybe made it out to be.

Now how they got to 9-8 I didn't expect a 2-6 and 3-7 start. Their schedule was hard the 1st half. Losing TJ Watt for half the season didn't help. Whether its skill he brings or he's just a lucky Rabbit's foot we couldn't win games without that guy.

Not really concerned about the continuation of 20 years without a sub .500 record. That is meaningless. Bad part is no playoffs and no playoff win in 6 years.

I like the foundation I don't feel like we have a terrible team on our hands. A lot of the same team will return. With a good draft and some decent FA moves I feel like we can be better and contend better with the best teams in the AFC.

I feel where we stand now we can beat average to below average teams but aren't good enough to be with the Elite of the AFC.

That is KC, Cincy, and Buffalo..

 

Agree, just want to add that all those close games, let's not forget how bad Harris was running then, if it was injury related then the coaches should of seen this and used Warren more. Same could be said of Pickens with so few targets, same could be said of the young Heywood, every time he touched the ball something good happen, he was under utilized. When Bush was stinking up the joint, why wait so long, almost the end of the year for Mark Robinson to replace him against the good running teams at least.

All these things happen early on in the season along with your above statement of not having experienced offense, bad offensive line, a bad OC, even though both got better little better in the end.

Yea it was a rebuilding year but some better coaching decisions could of still got us into the playoffs.

 

To be honest, I have no clue what you are digging at?
Ben excuse? Are you saying he wasn't a SB QB? I don't know if I can subscribe to that line of thought.
Tomlin not being good enough? He is the coach, and I can agree he could get a little more out of his talent or perhaps be better at judging his talent.
Not sure what I am defending?

 

Two potential HOF in BR/ AB and we got routed? I am not the argumentive type like some on here. I guess
I am guessing you were speaking about the good Ben years well Ben had Ab/ LV credible defense and we still couldn't win.

 

Oh,,, I see... sorry.
No, I don't see you as such. No way.

Taking 2017 when the players were really in their Prime.
Ben was having a great season passing 4k+ yds
Bell was a top rusher
Brown led in Rec'g.
Defense was ranked top 5.
They finished with a good looking 13-3 record.

That was a pretty solid roster.
They had some troubles against the run, they weren't horrible...
but whatif?
Calais Campbell - a "Get over the top" kind of player was added alongside Heyward and TJ? He went to the Jags....

But you have to have the chef blending the ingredients and Tomlin had some pretty good fixin's on that team.

To be honest, I think the Steelers did in fact look past that game, Bortles was terrible, and were focusing on the Patriots.. which is bad.
I guess if wishes were fishes.......

 

Too pessimistic looking at it like that. Bottom line is the O-line started playing better as the season progressed and Kenny matured too, and progress was still increasing as season ended.

More bottom line: I think right now we could beat most all playoff teams.

 

Not scoring 18 points a game…..

 

How do you know someone is miserable based on what they type on a message board?

 

Considering the retirement of a potential HOF QB, I was pleased to see us finish 9-8..... it's basically the same record 4 out of the last 5 years...... while losing Ben and moving to a rookie QB.

I could nit pick and complain about a lot of things, but I think they showed some progress in the 2nd half of the season..... I mean there were NO miracles, but it was nice to see a couple last drive wins by the KP led offense. They can only blame themselves for not making the playoffs, but there's just enough hope to be excited for the offseason and next year.