With their bye week(end) being pushed up because of the coronavirus outbreak with the Titans, the Steelers find themselves in a curious position.
Like every other NFL team, they didn't have a preseason. But because their bye came just three weeks into the start of the season, they can almost treat their first three games as something of a preseason -- especially since they happened to win all three.
They had an opportunity to work new players, whether they be tight end Eric Ebron or rookies Chase Claypool, Alex Highsmith, Anthony McFarland and Kevin Dotson, into the lineup. And they did so while also winning some games. Perhaps more important, they had an opportunity to get Ben Roethlisberger comfortable playing football again after the quarterback played just 1 1/2 games in essentially a year and a half.
Roethlisberger and the Steelers can now take a step back and quickly assess things before moving forward with the final 13 games of their 2020 season. They can figure out what they've done well and build upon those things while also taking into account what hasn't been quite as good and figuring out how to fix it.
With that in mind, let's look at what went right and wrong for the Steelers in their first three games.
WHAT'S GONE RIGHT
• The pass rush has picked up right where it left off last season, and it might even be better.
The Steelers have recorded 15 sacks in their first three games, putting them on pace to have 80 this season. That would break the record of 72 set by the 1984 Bears.
Can they keep it up?
The fact that their 59 pressures are 22 more than the next closest team and their 39 quarterback hits are nine more than anyone else heading into this weekend suggests that it can.
T.J. Watt, Bud Dupree, Stephon Tuitt, Tyson Alualu, Mike Hilton and Vince Williams are all off to hot starts getting to the quarterback. Cam Heyward, meanwhile, has just half a sack in the first three games, so there's more meat on the bone there for the Steelers to keep this up.
They also have two games remaining against the Bengals (NFL-worst 14 sacks allowed) and Ravens (10 sacks) and one each against the Eagles (11 sacks allowed) and Jaguars (10 sacks allowed) remaining. There are some additional big sack games potentially coming.
The sacks have allowed the team to continue to force turnovers. After leading the league with 36 forced turnovers in 2019, the Steelers have forced five turnovers in their first three games.
• In addition to the pass rush being the best in the league, the run defense also has been spectacular. The Steelers lead the league, allowing 54 yards rushing per game and 2.7 yards per carry.
Beyond even that, they are giving up 2.3 yards per carry to opposing running backs. And they've faced Saquon Barkley, Melvin Gordon and David Johnson -- all former 1,000-yard rushers -- in the first three weeks.
The Steelers lead the league with 29 tackles for a loss, picking up where they left off last season, when they had 90. But they also allowed 109.2 yards per game on the ground last season, in no small part because opponents averaged 28.9 rushing attempts against them.
This season, that number is down to 20.3 attempts.
In 2019, opponents could afford to stick to the running game because the Steelers' offense wasn't all that threatening. Now, if they stick with the run, they're going to be punting to an offense that has more teeth.
• About that offense, it's averaging 26.7 points per game, up from 18.1 a year ago.
The offensive line looks better -- because the quarterback is more aware of what opponents are trying to do -- and it's helped the running game improve overall to 139.7 yards per game, up from 90.4 yards per game in 2019.
There are still issues -- we'll get to those -- but the run game is obviously better than it has been.
• The Steelers have an actual return game this season -- at least through three games.
Ray-Ray McCloud has been very close to breaking off a long kick return and is averaging 28.8 yards return in that phase. He's also averaged 12.5 yards on punt returns, which is right in line with the 12.4 yards per return Diontae Johnson averaged last season to lead the league.
That's helped the Steelers have an average starting line of scrimmage of 31.3, which ranks ninth in the league. Turnovers help that, too. But last season, with the return game nowhere near what it is right now -- and leading the league in forced turnovers -- the Steelers' starting field position was their own 28.7. In 2017, when the team struggled to force turnovers, it was the 26.2, which was 31st in the league.
WHAT'S GONE WRONG
• The offense is still sputtering. The Steelers are averaging 2.36 points per drive, which ranks 17th in the league. Scoring is way up across the league, however.
In 2018, for example, the Steelers averaged 2.32 points per drive, which was tied for ninth in the NFL. So even though the Steelers' scoring is up, it's relative.
The problem is too many three-and-outs. The Steelers are going three-and-out on 30 percent of their offensive possessions. That's the third-worst percentage in the league.
The defense has made up for that by forcing the most three-and-outs in the league, doing so just over 27 percent of the time, but the offense can't be so hit-and-miss.
The biggest issue has been failures on first downs that have led to a 40 percent third down conversion percentage.
Roethlisberger is 26 of 40 for 338 yards and three touchdowns, which sounds good until you realize his 14 incompletions on first down are more than he has on any other down -- he's got 11 incompletions on second down and 10 on third.
James Conner has averaged 5.0 per carry on first down, but that goes way down when a 59-yard run against the Broncos in Week 2 is taken out of the equation, knocking that down to 2.4 yards per attempt. Benny Snell has been even worse, averaging 2.1 yards per attempt on 14 carries on first down.
Those numbers, however, can be expected to get better as Roethlisberger continues to find his groove.
The Steelers have run the ball effectively at the end of games, which is when you definitely want to be able to do so, but they have to get it going better earlier in games.
• The initial red zone numbers don't look great -- 50 percent -- until you consider the Steelers were kneeling on the ball inside the opposing 20 at the end of the game in two of their first three outings.
Take those out of the equation and the Steelers' 60 percent red zone success rate jumps to the top half of the league. But 60 percent is still far below the 73.5 percent clip they scored touchdowns at in 2018, when they led the league.
• Part of the reason for the offensive struggles has been some of the playmakers being in and out of the lineup. The trio of Conner, JuJu Smith-Schuster and Johnson has been on the field together for just 36.9 percent of the team's offensive snaps thus far.
That obviously has to change moving forward, right?
• The pass defense has been erratic at times. This is the result of the Steelers being more willing to leave their corners on islands more than they have been in the past, but opposing quarterbacks are averaging 7.1 yards per pass attempt and have thrown 7 touchdown passes against the Steelers.
The 7.1 yards per attempt is 12th in the league, while the 7 touchdown passes are tied for the sixth-most in the league. Because of the sacks and QB hits, opponents drop back to pass at their own risk against this defense. And as we saw in Week 3 against the Texans, when the Steelers don't blitz as much and just play coverage, they can throttle an opposing offense.
But there want to continue to be aggressive. And that's going to continue to lead to some plays being made against them on the back end at times.
• About that move at punter? The Steelers signed veteran Dustin Colquitt and released Jordan Berry before the season began. This despite the fact Berry had averaged 45.5 yards per punt in 2019.
One of the main reasons for the move was because Berry wasn't the most consistent punter in the league. But Colquitt hasn't been an improvement.
He's averaging 43.8 yards per punt, which ranks 25th in the NFL. He's even worse -- 26th -- in net average at 36.8 yards.
Now, the Steelers have gone to and won Super Bowls with the likes of Jeremy Kapinos, Mitch Berger and Chris Gardocki punting the ball, and the move did save the team $1 million against the salary cap, but Colquitt hasn't been an upgrade.