It was neither easy nor particularly pretty,. But it was revealing, and while some of what was revealed will engender confidence, there will be some that will create doubt. The significance of any or all of that will be left to each individual to determine, but since the NFL is a bottom line business and the bottom line of Sunday’s exercise at Acrisure Stadium was Pittsburgh 27, Cleveland 14, what took place deserves to be recognized as an accomplishment.
Now it’s on to the next one.
But before that’s allowed to happen, the drama titled “Steelers vs. Browns, the rematch” will be dissected and rehashed and what-if’ed to death. And how you end up feeling about these Steelers and what their 10-3 record says about them and their immediate future probably won’t have changed from how you felt about those things when they were 9-3.
Yes, professional football as its played at the NFL level is a business, and Coach Mike Tomlin tells everyone who works for him that “our business is winning.” Yet you must admit that its purpose is entertainment, and that entertainment often comes from attaching style points and aesthetics to things actually defined only by cold, hard numbers. There is no “committee” taking it all in and then voting on which teams “have earned” the opportunity to compete for the big trophy. It’ll be contested in stadiums with scoreboards that will decide who advances. This is the NFL after all.
The Steelers woke up today with a 10-3 record, as winners of 7 of their last 8, and at 6-1 with Russell Wilson as the starting quarterback. But now it’s going to get real. These next three weeks will have three games over a span of 11 days – starting on Sunday, Dec. 15 and ending on Wednesday, Dec. 25 – against three opponents that woke up today a combined 30-18 and as winners of 12 of their last 15.
Looking at it through the glass-half-full lens, the Steelers are getting top quality quarterback play from Wilson, who has been…
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