The Pittsburgh Steelers won their Week 8 game against the New York Giants in front of a national audience on Monday Night Football. Most outlets were pretty optimistic about the Steelers last week after a blowout win over the New York Jets and the emergence of Russell Wilson and the offense. Basically every major outlet had them as a top-10 team in the power rankings last week.
After another win, you would expect them to climb in most power rankings, especially with a couple upset losses ahead of them. Most outlets had them staying in the same spot while some had small climbs and even small falls. For comparison, here was last week’s power rankings roundup.
Below is a chart of aggregate power rankings from several major outlets. The highest rank, given by both Pro Football Focus and Pro Football Talk, was No. 7. The lowest rank was No. 12 given by The Ringer. All of the rankings averaged out to 8.7, so the Steelers are firmly viewed as a top-10 team at the moment.
I can understand all sides of it here. The Steelers were expected to beat the Giants and allowed them to stay in the game right up until Beanie Bishop Jr. sealed the deal with an interception. On the other hand, the Steelers are one of just seven teams with at least six wins, and they are in first place in the AFC North. No matter the outcome of Week 9, they will remain in first place in the division.
The Baltimore Ravens didn’t experience as big of a drop as one would expect after losing to the Cleveland Browns, who are one of the worst teams in the league. And the Minnesota Vikings are still viewed by some outlets as a stronger team than the Steelers despite a worse record and a Week 8 loss.
By the numbers, the Steelers have climbed the leaguewide rankings with their offense to be No. 16 in terms of total yards per game at 328.1. Their scoring offense is 15th with 23.4 points per game. That may not seem like much, but it was much lower in both categories just a few weeks ago.
Meanwhile, the defense is ninth in total yards allowed at 310.3 per game. They are also the No. 2 scoring defense at 14.9 points per game. On top of those impressive numbers, the Steelers are plus-10 in turnover differential and are tied for the second-most takeaways in the league with 15 and the fourth-fewest giveaways with five. Not to mention special teams, which the Steelers could very well have the best overall unit in the league at the moment.
Now they enter the bye week, so there probably won’t be much movement next week unless there are more significant upsets to bump them up or down a spot or two.
