At 8-2, the Steelers find themselves with a two-game lead in the loss column in the AFC North coming off of Sunday's win over the Ravens at Acrisure Stadium.
But there are still things that could be better. First and foremost on that list is scoring more touchdowns once they get inside the opposing 20-yard line, known better as the red zone.
The Steelers failed to score in four trips inside the 20 in last Sunday's 18-16 victory over the Ravens, but were forced to settle for six Chris Boswell field goals.
They're still averaging 27.25 points per game in Russell Wilson's first four starts, but they have fallen to 30th in red zone scoring percentage, getting a touchdown on trips inside the opposing 20 just 44.4 percent of the time. Over the past three games, they've scored just 25 percent of those trips.
Wilson, however, has been able to overcome that by connecting on deep passes, something the Ravens were determined not to allow him to complete on Sunday.
"You look at -- that's why it's always week-to-week and circumstantial," said offensive coordinator Arthur Smith. "But obviously overall, every time you get there (you want a) touchdown. In the Giants game it might be two called back, whatever it was. Not ideal. Washington, we were better, obviously the one we didn't score -- not ideal.
"But this past week, give Baltimore credit. We've got to do a better job there. We need to be cleaner there. So credit the defense and other thing is, we've all got to do better."
For better or worse, much of that falls on the quarterback. Wilson, for example, didn't fumble at the 1-yard line against the Commanders as happened to Jaylen Warren while fighting for additional yards. But he did throw an ill-advised lob pass to 6-foot-8 tight end Darnell Washington against the Ravens that was intercepted.
In the situation against Washington, the Steelers were trying to go in for a go-ahead score, something Wilson gave them a few minutes later with a touchdown pass to Mike Williams. Against the Ravens, the Steelers held a 15-10 lead in the fourth quarter. A touchdown would have put the game away, but a field goal also would have made it an eight-point game.
"Anytime you get down there, we want to score points," said Wilson. "Obviously, we were trying to get a touchdown there. I tried to lobbing one up to the big man. But they made a play. In those situations, I've obviously made a lot of plays down there creating and everything else. So, you know, that one particular, you know, just throw it away, make it, make it an eight-point game."
Balancing things out, the Steelers defense is allowing opponents to score touchdowns in the red zone at a 48.3 percentage, eighth-best in the league, which helps mitigate some of the offense's issues.
The Steelers have been good offensively despite their red zone struggles because of Wilson's ability to throw the deep ball. But the Ravens last week were determined not to allow the Steelers to complete those deep looks.
"They are going to game plan," Smith said of opponents. "You can watch whatever it was, the game before, or whatever the numbers were trending, but they weren't going to stay the same. And so every team is going to adapt. Whether they throw something different at you, if it's a set read or show your man or back off, play off, or play some junk (Cover-2) that are trending, show pressure to different guys at spots, That goes into it, as well. And they did a good job, and we didn't make enough plays. But that will be a challenge every week."
• Dale Lolley is co-host of "SNR Drive" on Steelers Nation Radio. Subscribe to the podcast here: Apple Podcast | iHeart Podcast Pittonline@iheartmedia.com
As long as opponents see the Steelers struggling when they get closer to the end zone, they'll continue to play them in a similar fashion.
On the positive side, however, is the fact the Steelers have scored points in 22 consecutive quarters, the longest such streak in the NFL.
They're consistently moving the ball, even if they don't necessarily punch it into the end zone once they get close.
And Wilson has been excellent in his career in the red zone. For his career, he has a 94.1 passer rating with 225 touchdown passes and 15 interceptions inside the opposing 20.
Playing Cleveland (2-8) Thursday night might help. The Browns are 24th in the NFL, allowing touchdowns in the red zone on 63.3 percent of opponents' trips inside the 20.
Some of the Steelers' opponents thus far this season - the Chargers, Broncos and Giants - are among the top 10 defenses in the league at limiting opponents inside the 20. Baltimore is a respectable 13th.
"I think the best thing that we can do is focus on just trying to be great in the fundamentals, great in the little details and every time you step in the red zone, we're looking forward to scoring touchdowns, I think that's a mentality thing," Wilson said. "I think that we've done that so far some this year. We want to do more of it."
