Steelers final record prediction: Writers' predictions for the remainder of the year
Pittsburgh gets to relax this week as the Steelers enjoy their bye week. They currently sit on top of the AFC North division despite the odd way of getting there. They might be sitting on the top of the mountain right now, but they kind of stumbled their way to that point. The Steelers will make no complaints about where they currently sit, but they have a lot of improvements that need to be made.
The hope is that this club can find different ways to reset and get better over the next week with the extra time off. Getting some rest and stability in terms of their health moving forward will be a welcome addition. The black and gold have one of the easier schedules this year according to most experts so they should have a shot at making the playoffs if all goes to plan.
Things to pay close attention to for the remainder of the Steelers season
The offense will be the obvious thing to watch during the remaining 12 games on the schedule for Pittsburgh. They will constantly have issues if they cannot get this group going and score more than a couple of touchdowns. The defense is another underlying problem that is not getting much attention because of how poor the offense is.
Stopping the run needs to occur even though the secondary, especially cornerback is a massive problem. Stopping the run and rushing the passer has the be something that the Steelers defense focuses on after the bye week. If they are able to do that and continue their splash plays, then it might limit how much they need the offense to step up.
There are plenty of winnable games for the Steelers during their final stretch of the season. Teams in the NFL normally start to fall off during this part of the year, but Mike Tomlin can normally keep his guys motivated enough to get past that non-losing season that people seem to hate to hear anymore. It is going to be another stressful couple of months ahead for Pittsburgh unless this team can somehow change things completely.