Russell Wilson's cringe-worthy outing vs. Ravens somehow inspires hope for Steelers

Heading into Pittsburgh's daunting Week 11 matchup against the Ravens, we assumed the Pittsburgh Steelers would need a good game from the offense to emerge victorious. Baltimore possessed the top offense in the NFL in terms of both yards and points and holding them under 20 points seemed like an impossible task.

Unfortunately, Pittsburgh's offense was anything but spectacular in this showing. This was a flat-out bad performance by veteran quarterback Russell Wilson.

On 36 pass attempts, Wilson managed to complete 23 passes for 205 yards per attempt. This was good for a mere 5.7 yards per attempt. Wilson also botched every opportunity to convert in the red zone -- even turning what should have been a touchdown into an interception.

As a result, Wilson earned a 67.5 passer rating in this contest, and his 14.5 quarterback rating couldn't have been much worse. Somehow, this cringe-worthy performance from the Steelers' starting quarterback didn't seem to matter, as Pittsburgh found a way to win.

Steelers prove they can beat good teams without great QB play

If it comes down to Pittsburgh needing Russell Wilson to go toe-to-toe with quarterbacks like Josh Allen or Patrick Mahomes in the playoffs, the Steelers are in a losing battle. The good news is that the Steelers are proving they can still beat really good football teams in spite of their QB play; not because of it.

This wasn't the only underwhelming performance Wilson had in his short time with Pittsburgh. In Week 10 against the Commanders, Wilson completed just 14 of 28 passes for 195 yards (though he did cap off drives with three touchdowns) while throwing one interception. But because the rest of the roster talent outweighed what the Commanders and Ravens have had to work with, the Steelers found a way to win both games.

Beating good teams amid ugly quarterback play is actually a very encouraging sign for the Steelers. This team is well-balanced and talented enough that it's not going to take a great game by the QB to get the job done.

This means that, if Wilson can clean up his game by the playoffs and start converting in the red zone, the Pittsburgh Steelers could be a force to be reckoned with in the postseason.

Russell Wilson isn't going to do as poorly every week as he did against the Ravens, but the Steelers are still 8-2 on the season and 4-0 with Wilson at the helm. Knowing they can win without great quarterback play is exactly what Pittsburgh needs to show if they want to be Super Bowl contenders this year.