The Pittsburgh Steelers weren’t able to go all the way this year, but if it’s any consolation at least they lost to the best.
Maybe if Pittsburgh had been at full strength they could have beaten the Denver Broncos. Even without Antonio Brown, Le’Veon Bell and DeAngelo Williams it took a late fumble by a backup’s backup to end the Steelers’ season.
Even still, there’s no point in complaining and wondering what might have been. Losing is only useless when you fail to learn anything from it.
Here are a three things that the Steelers could learn from the Super Bowl 50 champions.
1. The quarterback position can be overrated
If you have heard it said once you have probably heard it 200 times. The NFL is a passing league and it’s dominated by quarterbacks. If that’s true then how did the Broncos get to the top with Brock Osweiler and the re-animated corpse of Peyton Manning leading the way?
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Manning will go down as one of the best to ever play the position but this year he was a shell of himself. He completed less than 60 percent of his passes, he thew nearly twice as many interceptions (17) as touchdowns (9) and his passer rating was a career low 67.9.
Nobody knows better than Peyton that having a great quarterback isn’t enough to win a Super Bowl. It must have been nice for him to be carried by his defense for one.
Even with their starting left tackle Ryan Clady out the whole year and a subpar passing game, the Broncos won it all. The lesson is clear: you don’t need a dominant offense to win championships. Pittsburgh should be mindful not to invest too much on that side of the ball.