Kenny Pickett and the Steelers offense

Some interesting numbers here.

You would not know it by watching them, but the Pittsburgh Steelers are 4-2 this season going into Sunday’s game against the Jacksonville Jaguars (even more shockingly, 11-4 in their past 15 games going back to the 2022 season and the post-bye week performance) and in what should be a pretty promising position with three consecutive home games ahead.

What makes the record and their position so staggering is just how bad the offense has been for most of the season. Going into this past Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Rams the offense had scored just five touchdown in five games, while two of their three wins were aided almost entirely by the defense making big splash plays that either set up short fields for touchdowns, or actually scored touchdowns. Nothing about it is sustainable long-term.

Quarterback Kenny Pickett has seemingly regressed from what small improvement he made in the second half.

The offensive line is still very inconsistent.

They desperately missed Diontae Johnson when he was injured.

The play-calling and overall game-planning just seems awful on a weekly basis.

The frustrating thing about that is that for as bad as the offense has been for the most part, they have had a tendency to piece together drives and make enough plays in big moments that they can do just enough to win.

The popular narrative is that Pickett simply has the clutch gene and is not afraid of big moments. And hey, maybe he does have that element to him and maybe he can dig deep and make key plays. But I feel like that is a lazy narrative and not exactly accurate as to what is happening.

If you look at Pickett’s splits there is a noticeable trend that has been happening all season.