Heading into the first week of the NFL season, almost everyone expected the Pittsburgh Steelers and Jets to be a typical slugfest. Both teams were known for their defenses last year, and both had major questions with new offensive pieces in place.
Vegas was in tune with this, giving the game one of the lowest total points projections at just shy of 40 points between the two teams. It wouldn’t have been shocking to see the total points come in below 25, let alone 40 points.
And then, the first snap occurred, and that thought process was turned completely on its head.
Both the Steelers and Jets offenses shined this week, while each of their defense struggled to stop the opposition. The points total nearly passed the Vegas line by halftime, and both teams kept the gas pedal down in the second half.
The Pittsburgh Steelers turned the New York Jets game into a shootout
For the Jets, a potent run game opened things up to allow Justin Fields to shine in the run game. He played great in his New York debut, and seeing him shine added some extra sting to his leaving the Steelers.
Aaron Rodgers wasn’t a slouch either. For most of the game, he was the entire offense, as the passing game was the only way this team moved the ball. He was also efficient at scoring in his first Steelers game.
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What does this mean for a Pittsburgh team that was built to win close rock fights? It looks like the design may have to change.
One of the offsets of the Jets and Steelers playing in a shootout is that the once vaunted Pittsburgh defense was exposed. After numerous new faces and investments, this group struggled once again to start the season off.
In particular, the run defense was all sorts of bad this week. While defending against a running quarterback makes general run defense harder, it was no excuse for this defense, which multiple times said its goal was to stop the run.
Moving forward, we may need to bank more on the offense showing up instead of the defense winning the game for them. The Jets exposed them in week one, but thankfully, Pittsburgh’s offense kept up. It may be a cultural shift for the rest of the year.