Steelers Offense Missing Crucial Instinct

Squandered Opportunities

At the same time, the team squandered multiple opportunities to put the Patriots away. The Steelers defense had a comeback performance in New England, forcing five total turnovers during the game. That includes forcing three fumbles over the Patriots’ five second-half possessions.

The problem is that the Steelers’ second-half offense was brutal. Their second-half offensive possessions ended the following ways: interception, punt, punt, punt, touchdown, victory formation. Yes, they put up the winning score in one of those possessions, but they have three consecutive opportunities to put the Pats away and couldn’t do it.

Why this is so troubling for the Steelers is that the defense can’t be expected to do this. Sure, they can be a turnover-dependent defense, but five turnovers in a game is extraordinary. There’s Steelers can’t waste these valuable opportunities to flip the momentum or close out an opponent.

Raising the Ceiling

That killer instinct is what will take this team from back-and-forth to Super Bowl-worthy. They took a step toward that against the Patriots, and that should be acknowledged. But there’s still multiple glaring flaws in this group that must be addressed and corrected in order for this team to reach the level they believe they can. But what their most recent victory demonstrated is that the ceiling the Steelers offense can reach is much higher than the lows of their worst performance.