The Steelers escaped Tampa Bay with a 26-19 overtime win over the Buccaneers in Week 6, but the final result barely covers how rough this one looked for long stretches.
For three quarters, Pittsburgh was flat-out bad. The offense never got rolling, the quarterback was off, the stars disappeared, and the defense settled into a bland, ineffective rhythm.
Then the fourth quarter hit, and the whole thing changed. Aaron Rodgers started finding his groove, moving around and making plays.
DK Metcalf suddenly turned into the kind of late-game weapon the Steelers have leaned on before. The defense, too, began getting after Jalon Daniels.
Pittsburgh flipped the script, finished the job in overtime, and walked out of Raymond James Stadium at 4-2.
The biggest single moment belonged to Jamel Dean, who played what the article calls a revenge game and made it count. With under two minutes left in a tie game, Dean picked off Jalon Daniels and returned it to the three-yard line, giving the Steelers a chance to take control with a field goal. Tampa Bay answered with one of its own to force overtime, but Pittsburgh closed stronger and took the win.
Still, the ugly parts were hard to ignore. Special teams remain a mess.
The Steelers are sitting with the worst kick return unit in the NFL, and that becomes even harder to stomach with a fourth-round pick producing numbers that are compared to Cordarrelle Patterson’s only year in Pittsburgh. Kaden Wetjen had a brief spark in the first half, but it was wiped out by a blindside block from Cole Holcomb.
After that, the unit slid right back into the same frustrating pattern.
Chris Boswell also added to the concern by missing another field goal against the Buccaneers, and the coverage teams are only average at best. Taken together, it leaves special teams looking like a full-blown problem, not a side issue.
There’s also the question of why Wetjen is still hanging around, especially with the wide receiver room banged up. The article makes the case that the team should end the Kaden Wetjen experiment and move on.
Rodgers is another issue that only gets louder away from home. At Acrisure Stadium, he looks sharp, dynamic, and at times athletic.
On the road, the picture is very different. In all three road games, he has looked hesitant, thrown off his back foot too often, and failed to generate consistent momentum.
The Steelers’ offense runs through him, and when he’s off, the whole group loses its edge.
That leaves Pittsburgh in a place where the win matters, but the concerns matter more. The defense has plenty of underachievers, and Patrick Queen is squarely in that conversation.
He’s been hard to find in meaningful moments, often trailing the play instead of driving it. The article says the Steelers need Elandon Roberts, or at least need to give him a real look, because Queen’s level of play is too far below what this defense needs.
And then there’s Metcalf. Even after his 11-catch, 97-yard day against Tampa Bay, the larger problem remains the same.
He had just 12 yards heading into the fourth quarter. That’s the issue.
Pittsburgh can live with late-game heroics, but it can’t keep waiting until the final period to get production from its top receiver. Against the Colts, he managed three catches for 12 yards in Week 5.
Against the Buccaneers, he finally produced, but only after the game was already slipping toward desperation.
The bigger point is clear: Metcalf needs to be involved for all four quarters, not just the last one. If that doesn’t start happening, the Steelers may need to keep searching for answers, and Omar Khan may need to look for another wideout.
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