Cris Collinsworth lost his mind at the end of the Steelers' pulsating, 16-13 victory over the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday.
"It's unbelievable!" Collinsworth exclaimed. "If you think about where the Pittsburgh Steelers were at 2-6, for them to be sitting here now at 8-8 is borderline unbelievable."
No, it's not. It's actually quite believable and was even predictable, or at least easily imaginable — unless you think the NFL's highest-paid defense beating Marcus Mariota, Sam Darnold, bad Derek Carr, Andy Dalton, Tyler Huntley and Matt Ryan is borderline unbelievable.
I don't. Truly, it's the least they could do.
Let's travel back in time for a little thought experiment.
If you and I and Collinsworth sat down during the bye week — with the Steelers at 2-6 — and I told you they'd be 7-8 going into Baltimore, you might have said, "No way. They stink. You're stupid."
I might have replied, "That's hurtful, but I'll stick to the point: It's not like they're gonna play the Bills and Eagles every week; they could lose a few games and still go into Baltimore at 7-8 if they merely beat the Saints, Falcons, Colts, Panthers and Raiders — you know, like everyone else does."
Would you, or Collinsworth, really have fainted at the thought of beating those teams? Would you have considered it a sports miracle to sweep the Saints, Falcons, Colts, Panthers and Raiders? Those teams were a combined 15-31-1 at the time.
And what if I then informed you that Huntley would start both Baltimore games, replaced in one of them by a practice-squad quarterback named Anthony Brown?
I mean, come on now. Anything less than 6-2 over the next eight games would have been almost as embarrassing as the 2-6 start.
Don't get me wrong. These past two wins were incredible. The Steelers have become interesting, even riveting, into the new year. But let's not be silly here. As Mike Tomlin might say, there is nothing mystical about this, at least from the defensive side.
The only mystical part is how the Steelers couldn't get the ball back from Anthony Brown in the home loss to Baltimore.
Minkah Fitzpatrick, T.J. Watt and Cam Heyward are paid to lead this team. They're supposed to be great and win games. Why do you think those three have contracts totaling more than a quarter of a billion dollars? ($251,223,235 million, to be precise.)
The revelation is what's happening on the other side of the ball, where Kenny bleepin' Pickett is growing up before our very eyes. Something seems to have changed in that Raiders game, not just with Pickett but with Najee Harris and maybe a bunch of young players on offense.
Maybe Tomlin was right when he talked about that winning drive signifying a "grow-up night." And then to take their act on the road and pull the same stunt against a really good Baltimore defense? That was something to behold.
Harris brings a maniacal attitude to his position. He runs as hard as any running back I've seen. George Pickens made a spectacular catch to light a spark in the pass game Sunday, and Pat Freiermuth already is a top-five tight end. The line has made strides.
Pickett's the story, though. Tomlin needs to be right with that pick, and he looks right so far. Imagine if Pickett had begun the season as the starter instead of having no chance to win the job in spring or summer, which meant no time with the starters before he was thrown in after halftime against the Jets.
On the winning drives against Las Vegas and Baltimore, Pickett ad-libbed several big plays, deftly sensing pressure and throwing on the run. The winning pass to Harris in Baltimore was the stuff of legend, kind of like Ben Roethlisberger's goal-line pass to Santonio Holmes in Baltimore all those years ago.
Collinsworth lost his mind on Pickett's pass, too, but I happen to think he was right in this case, when he said, "I'm just telling you: If Patrick Mahomes made this play, we'd be putting it right to the Hall of Fame. That's a Patrick Mahomes kind of magical moment, in the clutch part of a football game, that sets quarterbacks apart."
It was quite a play. Borderline unbelievable, you could say.
