Seton Hall
The Steelers are still alive
Date: October 11, 2019By: Joe Cammarota
After a 1-4 start to the season, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ playoff hopes are slim to none. Even in an offseason where the team lost superstar receiver Antonio Brown, and star running back Le’veon Bell officially left the team there was still high expectations for the team. Those expectations dampened quickly, as a thrashing at the Patriots during week one and losing future first ballot hall-of-fame quarterback Ben Roethlisberger for the season in week two.
Even with this, the Steelers place faith in 2018 third round pick Mason Rudolph and showed this faith by trading their 2019 first round pick, which could possibly be a top five, for Dolphins young star defensive back Minkah Fitzpatrick.
Fitzpatrick was brought in to help improve the secondary which has been in shambles since 2013, and in the first two weeks of the season were shredded by Tom Brady and Russell Wilson. The Fitzpatrick pick up has made a difference. The first two weeks of the season the Steelers allowed an average of 30.5 points per game and since the pickup they have only allowed 17.7.
Fitzpatrick has turned the defense into a strength of the team, and the big question right now is the offense, who is most likely starting Devlin “Duck” Hodges this week, the undrafted rookie and third string QB who was not even on the roster at the start of the season because of Rudolph’s injury. Hodges impressed the coaching staff so much in the preseason that they traded Josh Dobbs one week into the season to make room on the roster for him. Now he is slated to make his first career start under the lights at the Los Angeles Chargers.
So, why is there still a reasonable chance for this team without a starting quarterback to make the playoffs? Well first reason is the defense, the defense has been elite recently and has forced many turnovers. They have given the offense very good chances and have stifled opponent offenses often.
With a relatively easy schedule the rest of the way, the defense will continue to gel and force turnovers which will always give teams a chance to win, especially when they face poor offenses. In the current era of the league allowing only 17 points per game should be enough to have a winning record so it is only a matter of time until the tide turns.
Moving to the offensive side of the ball, Rudolph is progressing through the concussion protocol relatively quickly, and with a bye week next week he should be ready to go for the Monday night matchup verse the tanking Dolphins. Each game Rudolph has looked better and offensive coordinator started to let Rudolph air the ball out a bit against the Ravens before his injury which he was doing with some success. The offense will only get better as the season continues and was showing signs of being serviceable the past two weeks.
The Steelers theoretically could be 4-1 right now if a few bounces go their way. At home against the Seahawks, if Donte Moncrief doesn’t drop a pass that turns into an interception which gave the Seahawks great field position leading to a score, the Steelers probably win that game. In San Francisco, if James Conner does not fumble at the end of the game the Steelers run out the clock and win.
Finally, last week, if a wrongly called roughing the passer penalty is not called or Juju Smith-Schuster does not fumble in overtime, the Steelers likely win that game. They have hung around with good teams this year, and at some point, that luck has to change. They are not as bad as their record shows. This weekend’s matchup against the Chargers will bet the tell-tell sign. It is a tough match-up, but it will be virtually a home game as Steelers Nation loves to travel and the Chargers do not have a great fanbase in Los Angeles.
The improved Steelers defense can keep them in the game, and if the offense starts to capitalize on turnovers, there is a chance the Steelers run away with this one. Hodges can lead the team to a victory. Will he? Who knowns, but the Steelers trust him and he did look good against the Ravens. He holds the FCS record for passing yards, so there is potential, and the Chargers are really banged up, especially in the secondary. There is a chance for him to exploit that, but it all falls down to if offensive coordinator lets him.
Another reason the playoffs are still up for grabs is because the AFC North is so weak this year that an 8-8 record could feasibly win the division, but the Steelers cannot fall back in the division anymore. There is a good chance they go 5-1 in the division with the Browns playing inconsistent and have a quarterback where the argument can be made that Rudolph is better while the Ravens have issues on defense and offense.
Will the Steelers make the playoffs? Probably not, but they still have time to turn it around; it starts this week against the Chargers.
Joe Cammarota can be reached at joseph.cammarota@student.shu.edu.
