9-0 Steelers

Every once in a while, I like to get back to my Pittsburgh sports blogging roots. So I said to myself, if the Steelers go 9-0, I'm definitely going to write a blog post about the team. Amazingly, I said this to myself immediately after the Steelers defeated the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday to go 9-0 for the first time in franchise history. Let's get the negative out of the way first. The Steelers running game is struggling. They are ranked 25th in rushing offense (out of 32 NFL teams), and the entire offense is only 24th in total yards per game. The Steelers seem to start slow as they trailed Baltimore 17-7 at halftime two weeks ago and 13-9 to the Cowboys at the half last week. Starting linebacker and emerging star Devin Bush is out for the year, a major loss to the team's defense. Plus, they "haven't played anyone." The Steelers are 15th of 16 AFC teams in strength of schedule. (Meanwhile, Kansas City is 16th of 16, yet I haven't heard anyone say that the Chiefs haven't played anyone.)

So everything that I wrote is true. You know what else is true? The Steelers are tied for 4th in points per game averaging 30.1 points in its 9 games. That's more than the Tampa Bay Bucs, Arizona Cardinals, and Buffalo Bills who all seem to get lauded for their dynamic offenses. The team's defense is 6th in yards per game, and more importantly, 3rd in points allowed per game. The Steelers are +9 in turnover differential, good for 2nd in the league, and they lead the lead for sacks. The team is even 3rd in punt returns. All of this is why the team has the second best odds to win the Super Bowl according to this site.

The Steelers are so much fun to watch this year. With JuJu Smith-Schuster, Diontae Johnson, and Chase Claypool, the Steelers may have the best group of wide receivers in the league. At a minimum, they have the best and most exciting group of young wide receivers with the three aforementioned players along with James Washington and Ray-Ray McCloud all being under 25. Meanwhile, if you like seeing defense pressure, T.J. Watt, Bud Dupree, Stephon Tuitt, and company regularly hit and sack opposing quarterbacks. Then, you get playmakers like Minkah Fitzpatrick, Cameron Sutton, and Steven Nelson making "splash" plays on the back end. The Bengals went 0-for-13 on 3rd down conversions on Sunday. When have you ever seen a professional team not convert one third down in a game?

While the Steelers have exceeded all expectations so far (I doubt even the players thought they would be 9-0 before the season started), they aren't going to finish undefeated. There are still difficult games against Baltimore, Indianapolis and at Buffalo and Cleveland. Still, I'm excited that the team is 9-0 and already close to clinching a playoff spot before Thanksgiving. Plus, Derek Lutz from the movie "Back to School" is fired up!

Photos by Charles LeClaire/USA Today Sports and Keith Srakocic/AP.