It should be Kenny Pickett time, but there are way more problems than that

Everything stinks except for Chris Boswell.

There was about an hour on Sunday afternoon where it looked like the Pittsburgh Steelers season was going to get injected with some life and that maybe — maybe — they could get things going in the right direction after a pair of ugly losses.

Kenny Pickett replaced Mitch Trubisky at quarterback and sparked offense that has been a chore to watch and an embarrassment to 2022 football in the NFL. He scored two touchdowns himself, made some big league NFL throws, and had them in a position to potentially win and get back to .500 on the season.

They had a 10-point lead, at home, against a bad New York Jets team with a terrible offensive line and a second-year quarterback making his season debut and seemed to be cruising to a win with every ounce of momentum on their side.

Then it all fell apart. The defense came up small in the fourth quarter again, turnovers sabotaged drives, and what looked to be a sure win became an embarrassing 24-20 loss to send the Steelers to last place in the AFC North and a 1-3 record. They are now facing an absolutely brutal stretch of games that features Buffalo (on the road), Tampa Bay, Miami (on the road), and Philadelphia (on the road). That is four of the best teams in the league right now. They will be significant underdogs in every single one of those games and based on what we have seen so far there should be no expectation that any of them *should* be a win. They are very realistically looking at a 1-7 or 2-6 start here if something does not dramatically change.

We have not seen a truly bad Steelers team in decades, and even when that does happen it is typically a one-year blip and they return to contention the next season. Those *bad* Steelers teams also tend to be more of the 7-9 variety than a 2-14 mess. Right now this team is CONCERNING.

Some additional thoughts.

1. You have to start Kenny Pickett and there is no going back