JACKSONVILLE – Jaguars.com senior writer John Oehser each week during the 2023 regular season will speak with a writer or media member covering the Jaguars' opponent.
Up this week:
Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on the Steelers' matchup with the Jaguars at Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh, Pa., Sunday at 1 p.m.
Question: The Steelers are 4-2 with a 24-17 victory this past Sunday over the Los Angeles Rams in Los Angeles. Asses the Steelers entering Week 8.
Answer: They have been able to hang around and win by not playing very pretty at all. The first halves of their games almost without fail – [San Francisco] 49ers, Houston [Texans], Baltimore [Ravens], Rams – they play abysmal. But they somehow hang around. The other team does it to them. All of a sudden, the Steelers are in the game, then they get one drive in the fourth quarter and win. Against the Rams, the first-half performance was the same deal. They had 91 yards offense in the first half, then in the second half they had 201.
Q: Is it to the point that they realize that's what they are and can win that way?
A: That's exactly what it is. They realize what they are. For now. It's not like their defense is elite. It's not like their defense is smothering teams, but in the second half they make key stops. They come up with takeaways. And the other team lets them hang around. The Rams on Sunday missed an extra point. They missed two field goals. They threw a couple of interceptions and they let the Steelers hang around when the Rams were dominating the first half. It was completely lopsided statistically, yet it was 9-3 at halftime. That's kind of what the Steelers do. They're not going to blow anybody out, but they don't seem to get blown out except when the 49ers did it to them.
Q: How are they at quarterback? It appears second-year veteran Kenny Pickett is coming along.
A: Well, he comes along in the second half. He's a completely different quarterback from the first half until the second half. It's incredible how average at best he is in the first half and how very good he looks in the second half. He completes 55 percent of his passes for 320 yards and a passer rating of 65.97 in the first half. In the second half, he completes 68.8 percent of his throws for 749 yards and a 96.9 rating. That's pretty dramatic. That's the way he has played. They start very slow. Three of his four picks have been in the first half. Their running game has been again OK. They really play well in the fourth quarter offensively, at least better than they had been. The bar is set awfully low because in the first half they're just brutal. But in the second half, and especially into the fourth quarter, they look like they know what they're doing. Kenny Pickett in the second half Sunday completed his last nine throws for 140 yards. The transformation is hard to explain, but it has been the case in three or four games already this season.
Q: What are they offensively when they're right?
A: We saw them "right" in the fourth quarter Sunday. That was the first time since the season opener that they had both their wide receivers, Diontae Johnson and George Pickens. So, effectively Kenny Pickett was playing without his top two receivers [for much of the season]. Johnson is the guy who gets open the best coming out of his breaks, which opens up some room for George Pickens. When they're completing passes to both those guys, it opens up the running game. The fourth quarter Sunday is ideally how they would love to play because it worked to perfection. Saying how they would like to play and how they have been playing are two different things. They would like to be able to run the ball probably better than they have, but they ran it Sunday in the fourth quarter when they had to.
Q: You mentioned earlier: Not an elite defense. Same question as the previous one: What are they defensively?
A: They're [outside linebackers] T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith, their two edge guys. Highsmith is very good. He had 16.5 last year. He plays in Watt's shadow, but he is very good. He's very effective off that edge. I have to think that if they're not the best two edge guys in the league, they're certainly in the conversation. Even when T.J.'s not getting sacks, he's influencing the game. The Rams used two and three guys on him Sunday. At one point they (the Steelers) dropped him into coverage and what does he do? He picks the ball right there on the first pass of the second half and turns the game around, runs it down to about the seven or so and the Steelers go in and score. That really started turning the whole thing around for them. That's the strength and that's what they rely on. Their secondary is average at best. Their defensive line isn't scaring anybody, but they're stout enough that they're OK against the run, but not great. The Rams ran through them for 135 yards, and they were down to their third-team running back. So, they're not exactly a stout team up front. But then when you're playing a 3-4 defense and you're playing so much sub package with two down linemen against passing teams, guess what? Teams are going to run on you because you're not built to stop the run.
Q: You've been around the Steelers forever. Is this a Steelers team that can get there? Can they make an impact in the playoffs? Because that's always their goal.
A: They weren't a very good football team last year, but they were 9-8. They were 7-2 over the last nine games and missed the playoffs by a game. I certainly think they're a game better than they were last season, which probably will get you into the postseason. My feeling is they're a 10-7 team and with a little luck they could be 11-6. They're decent enough to beat most teams, but also not good enough that they can't lose to any team. We've seen that as well. They're decent enough to get into the postseason. I don't know that they can do damage. I don't think they could beat the elite teams because they're not built that way. But they're good enough that they could beat most teams.
