2022 Season : The Steelers WERE competitive! ( A look back and REALISTIC What IF Game)

[Iron Steeler]

Hey All,

I wanted to take a look back at the season in review and highlight that we were very competitive throughout the season.
I am hoping to evoke HOPE with you all , because I can see some positives here. And I think we can build this momentum into next year.

We lost a total of a 8 games.

• 2 of which we got blown out, Eagles and Bills.
• 2 we lost outright with the Browns and Bengals.
• 4 of those games we only lost by 6 or less points. Which mean IF a few plays break our way or if we eliminated some mistakes we most likely win.
  
  
  So I wanted to highlight those 5 games, and play some realistic "WHAT IFs". I am not counting injuries as a what if.

Patriots 17 Steelers 14

• WHAT IF Gunnar Olszewski doesn't muffed punt return at our 20 yard line to give patriots an easy TD Drive.

Jets 24 Steelers 20-

• WHAT IF the Dionte Johnson back of the endzone is called a TD (Correctly)(The refs said no TD)
• WHAT IF Chase Claypool doesn't have the ball bounce off his chest for an INT

Dolphins 16 Steelers 10

• WHAT IF on 2nd and 2 Pickett runs for a easy first down out of bounds to instead of throwing a pick on the run(FYI I was not mad at him trying to go for the win here. If he makes his decision quicker , I think drills this pass in, DJ catches it and we win.)

Ravens 16- Steelers 14

• WHAT IF Boswell does not miss the FG

Summation: We could of easily been 13-4, with a handful of plays we need need to clean up.

Now take into account we were this competitive while,

• trying to figure out our NEW QB situation.
• Have a rookie develop.
• And lost TJ Watt for half the season, arguably the best edge rusher in the league.

Summation: This is an incredible season for be a "rebuild year". Most teams in the NFL would fold it up and tank if they lost their star defensive all star, and had a QB competition . We went 9-8, and if about 5 plays went the other way this year we could of been 13-4 or at least one more win.

I'm confident for next year!

[hawaiiansteeler]

[DuckHodges]

Good post. We were a few lucky / unlucky breaks away from having a playoff season. Also in the Baltimore loss, you forgot to mention if Kenny didn't get injured they'd probably have won that too.

[Iron Steeler]

Good post. We were a few lucky / unlucky breaks away from having a playoff season. Also in the Baltimore loss, you forgot to mention if Kenny didn't get injured they'd probably have won that too.

Yeh good point. But I did not want to count injuries as a WHAT IF.

I do think Kenny was turning the corner at this point of the season, and this game could of been a big break out game for him, if he didnt get injured on a penalty that was not called!

[EzraTank]

I just checked and confirmed with my dog, that had we outscored every opponent this season we would have the #1 seed and be 19-0 right now.

It seems too suspicious so I'm going to wait until teegre confirms my findings.

[steelreserve]

WHAT IF Mitch Trubisky started the season on the bench where he belonged.

There, our start improved to 4-0 and it's a 12-win football team. That pretty much overrides any lucky breaks or lack thereof.

As far as one or two unlucky breaks here and there go - shitty players tend to make shitty plays, whether it's your starting quarterback, or a receiver who can't ever get open, or a punt returner who can't catch punts.

[polamalubeast]

At the same time,the steelers had 7 one score win....Overall it was 7-5 in one score game(7-6 if we includes the first game vs Cleveland)At one point they need to be more dominant and it start with more big play on offense.Their margin of error need to be much bigger

[Steeler-in-west]

WHAT IF Mitch Trubisky started the season on the bench where he belonged.

There, our start improved to 4-0 and it's a 12-win football team. That pretty much overrides any lucky breaks or lack thereof.

As far as one or two unlucky breaks here and there go - shitty players tend to make shitty plays, whether it's your starting quarterback, or a receiver who can't ever get open, or a punt returner who can't catch punts.

Not only that, what if we had a real pro level offensive coordinator (even Haley for instance). We win at least two of those close games and are getting ready for the playoffs.

Lesson Learned: shell out the bucks for a real NFL coordinator and QB coach. They will put the best talent available on the field and call the plays that will maximize their abilities and take advantage of what the defense gives. So we don't have to rely so much on luck.

The dolphins, jets, patriots and Ravens (even the browns game) were all winnable games.

[DuckHodges]

Not only that, what if we had a real pro level offensive coordinator (even Haley for instance). We win at least two of those close games and are getting ready for the playoffs.

Lesson Learned: shell out the bucks for a real NFL coordinator and QB coach. They will put the best talent available on the field and call the plays that will maximize their abilities and take advantage of what the defense gives. So we don't have to rely so much on luck.

The dolphins, jets, patriots and Ravens (even the browns game) were all winnable games.

I think the current QB coach has done a good job. Pickett improved with every game throughout the season so I believe he deserves some credit. I'm all for shelling cash for a good OC though.

- - - Updated - - -

WHAT IF Mitch Trubisky started the season on the bench where he belonged.

There, our start improved to 4-0 and it's a 12-win football team. That pretty much overrides any lucky breaks or lack thereof.

As far as one or two unlucky breaks here and there go - shitty players tend to make shitty plays, whether it's your starting quarterback, or a receiver who can't ever get open, or a punt returner who can't catch punts.

As much as I dislike Mitch, I don't think with Pickett we start 4-0, but we DO win one more of those games which makes us win and in on week 18.

Other than the QB, this year required a lot of identity building and figuring out what we had. We started off the season having the worst o-line and Najee being the 'workhorse', to having pretty decent OL play and a run-heavy offense with Najee / Warren as an established 1-2 punch. We went into the season as DJ being our #1 WR, to Pickens becoming the #1 and DJ the #2.

One thing successful about this season is the team now seems to have an identity, whereas early in the season it was trying to find itself.

[Steeler-in-west]

I think the current QB coach has done a good job. Pickett improved with every game throughout the season so I believe he deserves some credit. I'm all for shelling cash for a good OC though.

.

perhaps, he had some success as qb coach for Eli manning 10 years ago, but nothing positive since then. However KP has been improving so you may be right.

unless the new OC has someone better in mind

[teegre]

Great thread!!!

[DesertSteel]

For me, the first Ravens game is where it all fell apart. The early games were what they were -- a team trying to find an identity that didn't know how to win. They can't get Trubiusky out of town fast enough for me.

[teegre]

For me, the first Ravens game is where it all fell apart. The early games were what they were -- a team trying to find an identity that didn't know how to win. They can't get Trubiusky out of town fast enough for me.

Yep If Kenny plays / Trubisky doesn’t throw three red-zone INTs (or Boz doesn’t miss a FG), the Steelers win that game… and are not only on the playoffs, they are the SIXTH seed. Crazy.

[Steeler-in-west]

Offense was putrid in the first half of the season - we were at the bottom of the league in overall offense (tied with the bears) defense carried the load even after Watt went down. It helped that we played mediocre teams - or teams with their QB1 injured. That kept the games close. But when we faced a legit team (bills, eagles or bengals) we got spanked. As far as a specific game, the Jets game was a killer, if we start Pickett after an extended week.....i think we pull it off. Three terrible Trubisky performances before that game should've been enough to yank him and get KP ready for the jets.

Offense improved, thanks to KP and the O line play and Najee. I’ll give more credit to the players, Meyers, and Tomlin for keeping the team focused. But won’t give much credit to Canada - maybe the playcalling improved a little but this team was so woefully unprepared to start the season that I put a lot of blame on him and on Tomlin (as HC for tolerating the shitshow)

[Iron Steeler]

At the same time,the steelers had 7 one score win....Overall it was 7-5 in one score game(7-6 if we includes the first game vs Cleveland)At one point they need to be more dominant and it start with more big play on offense. Their margin of error need to be much bigger

Definitely need to sure things up on the offensive side! I think we will. More points , means more margin of error. So these bonehead plays or calls will not be so devastating and lead to losses.


Margin of error is small if

[pczach]

We also have to remember that the offensive line played mostly intact the entire year. That is unheard of to have that group remain mostly injury free for an entire season. So while the improvement by the OL was tremendous, they need to draft OL to try to upgrade a position or two and improve depth.

I am excited about this team. I am concerned about the OC like everyone else here, but this team got better and better as the year went on and answered many of the questions we had about Kenny Pickett, Pickens, Leal, Warren, and several other players. We also saw that there were players that took that next step to become very good players like Highsmith.

I don't know how anyone can look at what this team became by the end of the year and not be excited about the future.