They will enter the eighth week of the NFL season with a 6-0 record, their best through six games in 42 years. The two most recent victories came against teams that entered with a combined 9-1 record.
Their defense ranks No. 1 in the league. Their offense is scoring at a pace not seen before in franchise history.
Good times abound for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Right?
“Everyone is excited right now,” veteran guard David DeCastro said, “but it’s not a crazy amount of excitement.”
The Steelers are compelled to nitpick after nearly blowing a 20-point lead for the first time in franchise history. But they got bailed out when Tennessee Titans kicker Stephen Gostkowski missed a 45-yard field goal that would have tied the score in the closing seconds Sunday.
Although the Steelers escaped Nashville with a 27-24 win to become the AFC’s only undefeated team, the postgame celebration was muted, in part, because of the poor second half.
It was the third time this season the Steelers had built at least a two-touchdown lead only to sweat out the result in the final minutes. In two other games, the script was flipped: The Steelers were largely outplayed by inferior teams in the first half but dominated after halftime to seal victories.
“We’ve just got to continue to work hard and try to play the full game,” safety Terrell Edmunds said during a video conference call with media Monday. “Once we play a full game — offensively, defense, special teams, all three sides of the ball — I think we will be really great.”
That implies the Steelers are not yet great despite their record, NFL-best 286.3 yards per game allowed and top-seven NFL ranks in scoring (30.5) and opponents’ scoring (19.7).
The Steelers have scored at least 26 points in each of their first six games, something they never had done. Never at any point of any season have they eclipsed 26 points in seven straight games.
Defensively, the Steelers have yielded fewer than 306 yards in an NFL-best (tied) four of their first six games.
Still, a common phrase from players after Sunday’s win involved “meat on the bone,” meaning, in the parlance of coach Mike Tomlin, the Steelers left plenty of plays out there and there remained copious room for improvement.
“As players, we are kind of hard on ourselves this year,” DeCastro said. “We have high expectations for ourselves on offense and defense, and I think that’s good. No one is complacent right now or resting on our laurels. We are all staying grounded and just looking to get better. We know it’s a big test this week.”
The Steelers play at the two-time reigning AFC North champion Baltimore Ravens on Sunday. AT 5-1, Baltimore is their third consecutive opponent that enters with one loss or fewer. The Ravens have won 25 of their past 29 regular-season games, including sweeping the Steelers last season.
Despite the Steelers’ NFL-best record, oddsmakers installed the Ravens as an opening 5 ½-point favorite. Baltimore is good enough that the Steelers’ propensity to play subpar halves would figure to catch up to them if they did it again.
“We haven’t played our best game in a lot of games that we played this year, but we are still pushing and still fighting through and staying together as a team and winning football games,” Edmunds said.
“We hold ourselves on a pedestal, and we want to be this great team. That’s what we are striving for, and when we don’t play a great game everyone is upset in some ways. But at the end of the day, I am still happy we are 6-0.”
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