Will Week 1 win vs. Bills be Steelers’ most telling game of 2021?

The Steelers season opener against the Bills told viewers quite a lot. Will its execution end up defining how Pittsburgh’s 2021 will unfold?

2021 has gifted Pittsburgh Steelers fans with yet another season beginning with a victory worth keeping one’s head up over, a surprising 23-16 road upset over the Buffalo Bills.

And that’s no understatement, either, considering both the opponent and environment that surrounded their team last weekend.

Last year, the Bills were one of the AFC’s best squads, along with calling one of the league’s most jarring atmospheres “home.”

To beat a team of such a reputation is nothing to be modest about.

But from an observational perspective, what if anything, can viewers take away from the Steelers’ inaugural performance of 2021?

The answer to that question is a tad paradoxical, as we can easily take a lot away from what happened last Sunday. However, would any of it be something that we were not already aware of?

Let’s break it down.

Steelers win vs. Bills reinforces truths about the team already

Offensively, Pittsburgh looked good enough but did nothing truly awe-inducing. There would be an especially exciting play here and there, but at the end of the day, Pittsburgh played decently enough to win and nothing more.

Switching over to the defensive side of things, the black and yellow were concrete, literally. The Bills offense struggled to find its truest form all game, aside from a rather impressive touchdown grab by wide receiver Gabriel Davis.

So in other words, while all of the previous statements are accurate, they tell us nothing new. They tell us the Steelers offense is good and their defense is even better, but didn’t the fans already know those things?

Even the traits of the team itself are old news for crying out loud.

All of Pittsburgh’s scores were obtained in the second half of the game, which indicates it’s a second-half kind of team. That’s cool and all, but we learned that on a multitude of occasions back in 2020.

Lastly, the Steelers’ behavioral characteristics appear to have been left intact. This is especially so when looking at young star Chase Claypool. Tensions were high for both squads throughout the entirety of the game, but Claypool was shown running his mouth quite a bit.

But again, that is definitely not some sort of surprise.

All in all, the Steelers look no better than the version of themselves that we saw from the season prior. Sure, they were able to beat the Bills this time around, but the team’s overall execution and behavior seem no better than before.

However, 2020 saw Pittsburgh hit a record of 11-0 during the regular season, so perhaps that’s not the end of the world.