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 showing himself to be a guy who will do big-time things in critical moments that will have an impact on games. Against the Browns there was the opening possession of the second half where he converted a third-and-10 with a 21-yard shot to Pat Freiermuth down the middle, and then on a second-and-6 from the Browns 10-yard line he executed a read-option type play where he had 3 decisions to make: hand the ball to a running back, keep it and run around the end, or press the corner and deliver a quick pass to a slanting-in-from-the-back-side receiver. Wilson made the read, executed the fakes, and delivered accurately to Van Jefferson for a 10-yard touchdown.
Then on the next possession there were back-to-back plays where he converted a third-and-6 with was a 20-yard shot down the sideline to Mike Williams and followed with a touchdown pass where he moved the safety with his eyes and delivered the ball to Freiermuth up the seam.
Of course, those touchdowns on consecutive possessions to start the second half were necessary to remove the bitter taste of going three-and-out in four of the first 5 possessions in the first half. And of course, some of the issues the offense was having in the first half could be traced to George Pickens turning up on Friday's practice report as a limited participant with a hamstring injury and then being inactive for Sunday's game. Clearly a Pickens-less lineup was way less threatening to the Browns secondary, and it took a while for the Steelers to come upon an effective work-around.
While all this was going on, the Steelers defense did enough good things. The Browns punted 5 times, Keeanu Benton and James Pierre had interceptions, and Cam Heyward had 2 sacks. When there were problems, they often originated when QB Jameis Winston was able to duck outside to avoid the pass rush and then make plays down the field. Lose contain like that against Jalen Hurts in Philadelphia next Sunday, or against Lamar Jackson in Baltimore the Saturday after that, or against Patrick Mahomes on Christmas Day, which is the Wednesday after that, and 24 points isn't going to be nearly enough.
What they are is resilient, and what Tomlin works constantly to cultivate among the players is a "why not me" philosophy when it comes to making game-altering plays. There were the aforementioned interceptions by a second-year nose tackle and a core special teamer seeing time at cornerback because of an injury to Donte Jackson. There also was Corliss Waitman flipping the field a couple of times and Ben Skowronek sealing the deal by jumping on the loose ball when one of his punts were muffed.
"I want to take the mystique out of our performance," said Tomlin. "We determine how we play. We determine the outcome of football games. I built this team that way, and so I'm not being consistent in my words or actions if I approach games any differently."
They will need that approach to bear fruit because their next three games are different in what they present in degree of difficulty with little recovery time from one to the next. Three games in the 11 days starting with Dec. 15 and ending with Dec. 25 against three of the league's best teams, all with rosters containing some of the NFL's most dynamic players.
Those three games – in Philadelphia vs. the 11-2 Eagles, in Baltimore vs. the "won-loss record doesn't matter" Ravens, and in Pittsburgh on Christmas Day vs. the two-time defending champion Chiefs – against that level of competition at that time in the schedule is why they fought through all of the work they did to get here. Three All-Pro quarterbacks. Three elite organizations. The pursuit of a championship will have to go through that level of competition, and the Steelers are going to find out if they're up to the challenge.
It's not going to be easy, because they're not going to get the kind of help they got from the Browns. And it doesn't have to be pretty, because the only thing that matters is winning that particular game by any means possible. But it will be revealing.
The Steelers will wade into it with the kind of team – especially once Pickens is back from his hamstring problem – that is more equipped and better prepared to handle it than any in their recent past. They have done what was necessary to put themselves in position as one of the league's most relevant teams in the middle of December.
It's all there for them. And the best part is it's going to be up to them.
