Steelers firepower boosts their power rankings

The Pittsburgh Steelers put on an impressive display of firepower against the Indianapolis Colts SUnday and now they’re rising in the power rankings.

The numbers only tell part of the story about how prolific Pittsburgh’s offense was this week.

522 yards? Check. 24 first downs? Check Four touchdowns from Ben Roethlisberger? Check. 45 total points? Check. There are only so many metrics we can use to measure the potency of an offense, and the Steelers dominate all of them.

Who wants to face the Steelers in a wild card game when they’re capable of dropping a 40-burger on any given defense, no matter how good they are? Nobody, that’s who.

Let’s check in and see where the experts are putting the Steelers in their power rankings this week.

NFL.com: #7

“Was going to write some good rot about the dominance of Antonio Brown and Martavis Bryantfollowing the Sunday night win over Indy, but DeAngelo Williams impressed so much that we audibled.”

Yahoo Sports: #8

“Imagine if this offense had Le’Veon Bell.”

USA Today: #7

“They’ve averaged 35.8 points over last four games but face NFL’s top two scoring defenses (Bengals, Broncos) next two weeks.”

Bleacher Report: #10

“Unless your name is Richard Sherman, Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown just might be uncoverable.”

SB Nation: #8

“Pittsburgh is one of those teams that no one is going to want to face once the playoffs roll around — they can throw the ball better than just about anyone in the league…”

MMQB: #6

“The team Pittsburgh will field at Cincinnati on Sunday has three better wide receivers than New England will field at Houston, and one better running back than New England will suit up.”

Fansided: #10

“The Steelers not only dominated a solid Indianapolis Colts team on Sunday night, they did it with ease.”

At the beginning of the year, you might recall that the so-called experts didn’t quite know what to make of the Steelers. Some had them ranked as a top-five team, others thought their defense was so repulsive they placed them as low as 16.

Now that the season is entering the stretch run, it’s clear that Pittsburgh is a playoff-caliber kind of team. The only debate seems to be about where they fit in compared to the other elites around the league.

Ranking the Steelers below the Packers, Vikings and Chiefs as Fansided did seems short-sighted given the number of weapons Pittsburgh has. Putting them ahead of the Patriots as Peter King did at MMQB is getting a little bit carried away, no?

USA Today’s number seven ranking is the most sensible this week.

Next: Steelers vs. Colts: Defensive Huddle

Now the Steelers have two serious tests coming up against Cincinnati and Denver. We’re about to find out what this team is really made of.