Pittsburgh Steelers Week 8 Review: An Upside-Down "Verse"

As the Pittsburgh Steelers get a much needed bye week break for week nine of the NFL season, they get the time off sporting a 6-2 record while winning their last four games. In their sixth win of the season, they won the rematch with the Cleveland Browns dominating their rival and winning easily 27-6. Leading up to the game Cleveland defender Jared Verse was talking all kinds of smack as well as a few of his teammates joining in.

In the first meeting of these two teams earlier in the season on Thursday night in Cleveland, the Browns toppled the Steelers and Verse was accusing the Steelers offensive line for “dirty” play. Obviously, the Browns came to Acrisure Stadium with lots of confidence believing they could repeat their performance from the first game.

Instead, from start to finish the Steelers dominated the Browns. Both offensively and defensively they gave Cleveland a punch in the mouth from which the Browns never recovered. To add insult to injury, Pittsburgh’s Mason McCormick who was one of the players Verse had accused of playing dirty, was blocking Verse on one play and got the defender up off his feet only to body slam him into the turf. It was sort of a “Jack Lambert/Cliff Harris” moment that will be etched in Steelers Nation memories for a very long time.

Here is that moment:

Apparently some of Verse’s own players were upset with him wishing he had just kept his big mouth shut in the days leading up to the battle. As for Pittsburgh now having won their fourth in the row, all the talk about Mike Tomlin is quickly fading into the background. Mike McCarthy was absolutely the right choice to replace Tomlin and the coaching staff he brought in needs to be commended. Patrick Graham as the new defensive coordinator is doing a magnificent job in building a top 10 defense and the offense is burning on all available cylinders.

Keep this in mind…the offense is without Roman Wilson, Michael Pittman Jr., and recently Ben Skowronek. They have had to call up players from the practice squad and the stud receiver they have DK Metcalf is playing nowhere near the level he is capable of. The difference in the success of the offense without those four is the fact that Jaylen Warren has been running like a bat out of hell and adding to the receiving game.

Also, Rico Dowdle is healthy and running as expected going for 56 yards rushing against Cleveland but far shy of Warren’s 143 yards on the ground. Then you have this beast called Darnell Washington. I mean…WHAT??? I saw him sitting on the bench after a play with his helmet off and just man…this dude is a monster. He is becoming one of the most dangerous weapons in the NFL.

At this point Aaron Rodgers is in what he said is his final season in the league and only has to be a game manager. His weapons take care of the rest. He did throw one interception that was not his fault off a tipped pass, but he managed the game like the seasoned future hall of fame pro he is. He was only sacked once. The offensive line has jelled to the point I believe they are now fifth or seventh best in the NFL. If Pittman, Skowronek, and Wilson return and DK can find his game, oh boy. This team will become as dangerous if not more so than that high scoring Cincinnati Bengals unit.

Let’s talk defense. Incredible. They absolutely SMOTHERED Deshaun Watson. So much so they sacked him eight times. They pressured him all day and he never had the opportunity to establish any rhythm. If you are handing out stars to the Pittsburgh defensive players you better have more than a dozen. Everyone shined. Patrick Queen is playing his best football in Black and Gold and accounted for 12 tackles in this game three of them solo and he was in on 1 ½ sacks, one tackle for a loss, one pass defensed and two quarterback hits.

Other sacksters were Cameron Heyward, Alex Highsmith, Keeanu Benton, T.J. Watt (with two sacks), Nick Herbig, and rookie Kevin Jobity Jr. The Steelers were tipping passes at the line of scrimmage multiple times making it look easy. As a unit they defended five passes, hit Watson 13 times, and made seven tackles for a loss. Pittsburgh allowed only 34 yards rushing and while Watson accounted for 324 yards passing most of those yards came late in the game when Cleveland had no chance of coming back.

The Steelers defense forced two Cleveland fumbles recovering both. While Chris Boswell missed one long field goal he made two others and the shank of the one had no impact on the final score. The only problem I have right now with the Steelers is the return teams. I’ve been disappointed all season with the efforts of rookie Kaden Wetjen who was supposed to be some boy wonder about returning kicks. He was in college wowing many but now he just can’t get a long return. I’m not sure why Mike McCarthy does not replace him.

Following this bye week, the Steelers will take their 6-2 record to Cincinnati for their second divisional rematch and while they only won by three earlier this season. Cincinnati could have won that game but I believe the Steelers are a MUCH different team now. A BETTER team. After that they go to Philadelphia where they play an Eagles team that might very well be riding an eight game losing streak.

Denver comes to town on November 27 and Pittsburgh stays home for a playoff rematch with Houston. The rest of the schedule has the Steelers in Jacksonville, home for Baltimore, home for Carolina, and closes out the season with road games in Tennessee and Baltimore. At worst, I can see the Steelers easily finishing this season at 12-5 or 13-4. At best, they have a shot at winning the rest of their games, minus Jacksonville. I don’t believe they win that game. But if they beat Cincinnati, the Jags may be their only remaining loss based on how they are playing and that could put them close to if not having the #1 seed in the AFC.