By Leroy Brock Cravens
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November 26, 2020
The Steelers are 10-0 and yet, some power rankings boards have them at number two behind the Kansas City Chiefs. This is literally their best start in their entire franchise history and there are still doubters to this potentially historical team. One doubter is the self-proclaimed Steeler fan himself, Stephen A. Smith! Why is it the case that he recently declared that these guys were “overrated”? How can an unbeaten team in the NFL be overrated? To determine whether Stephen A. Smith is correct let’s check the stats. As of right now the Steelers are behind the Seahawks, Chiefs, and Packers in total offensive TDs for the season. That means they’re top four in the league when it comes to scoring. Sounds very elite. On the defensive side, the team’s opponents totaled the third fewest passing yards, and the seventh fewest rushing yards against them. Those numbers mean that their defense is elite as well. Hmm, well if both their offensive numbers and their defensive numbers statistically point to them being elite then that means they must be elite instead of overrated, right? Well we still have one more thing to look at, strength of schedule. Just looking at the stats, it seems that their biggest flaw is that they’ve played easy teams all year besides the Titans and Ravens. So, it’s actually pretty easy to post good numbers against teams like: Dallas whose starting QB is out for the season and the Jaguars, who seem to think losing is better than winning now. Overall are these guys overrated? I’d say so because it’s incredibly easy to look good when your schedule is one of, if not the easiest in the league. Sure, they beat the Titans and the Ravens this year, but that’s football. Any team can get lucky on any given night, just ask Eli Manning how he won his super-bowls. The fact of the matter is that the Steelers won’t go undefeated this season and are overrated because once they face a truly battle tested team like the Chiefs, they will go back to the irrelevancy from which they came. Sorry Steelers fans, but this isn’t your year.