Week 4: Steelers Winners & Losers

It wasn't easy to find winners for the Steelers, so there may be a surprise on this list. With that said, let's take a look at some winners and losers from Sunday's game against the Texans.

Winners

RB Najee Harris

While the running game still leaves much to be desired (specifically touchdowns), Najee Harris was the only player on the Steelers that looked good Sunday. Harris displayed his prowess as a power back, shedding would-be tacklers and fighting for extra yards. He finished with a season high total of 71 rushing yards (5.1 YPC). There were very few highlights from the game and Najee might have been all of them. 

Texans QB CJ Stroud

Curveball alert. After watching this game, CJ Stroud looks like a franchise quarterback. He extended his streak of attempts without an interception to 151, third-most all time while his 1,212 passing yards is the second most through four starts trailing Cam Newton. He was clearly the best quarterback on the field Sunday, and it was not close. Great game for him against a good defense.

Losers (many)

Matt Canada

One week after being in the Winners column, Matt Canada finds himself right back at the top of the losers list. I’ve been watching Steelers games for 20 years and I have never seen an offense look worse than it has the last couple of weeks. Last year, Canada led the Steelers to an NFL low 21 touchdowns and this year they are on track for 17. Absolutely amateurish. The Rooney’s do not like to make changes during the season, so we likely have not seen the last of Matt Canada. 

QB Kenny Pickett

Not only did he leave the field with an injury, but he was clearly the worst quarterback in the game. While he was not exactly set up for success, it didn’t help that Rookie CJ Stroud on the other sideline lit it up. Pickett showed some clear struggles including an underthrown ball to Calvin Austin that resulted in an interception and missing a wide-open Connor Heyward in the endzone on crucial 3rd down. He will likely miss some time, but thankfully Kenny only suffered a bone bruise so we will see him back on the field this season. For now, he will likely have to watch Mitch Trubisky fill in against the Ravens in his absence. 

Defense 

Tomlin needs to answer for the defense. No sacks against a team that had a completely reworked offensive line is inexcusable for the league’s best pass rushing duo. The Steelers have made it clear that the only way they are going to win games is by winning the turnover battle and they were not able to come up with any. The defense, to their credit, only allowed 30 points and it could have been much worse as the offense continued to falter on 3rd down often, sending the defense back out with minimal rest. The Steelers have averaged 70.8 defensive snaps per game, 4th worst in the NFL. While a lot of their struggles are on because of the offense, there is still a lot that needs to be cleaned up before Lamar Jackson and the Ravens come to Pittsburgh this Sunday. 

Yinzers

We the fans are the biggest losers this week. The Steelers are not a team that fires coaches mid season and we are likely going to have to watch Matt Canada call the plays for the next 13 games. Mike Tomlin was quoted saying “Hell yeah there’s going to be a change”. However, I recommend yinzers not hold their breath. There really isn’t too much that the Steelers could do in order to fix the issues that they have. At this point in the season, to try and retool on the run would be really difficult and could even set back development for many of the guys on the team.