The Steelers came very close to laying another egg against a mediocre Titans team on Monday night, but they managed to pull out the win with some late-game heroics. They blew an early two-score lead they had, which consisted of a field goal and pick six on the Titan’s first play. Although they played from behind for most of the game, the Steelers hung in there the entire game and kept it just close enough to make a fourth quarter comeback from an eleven-point deficit.

I believe a good chunk, if not all of the credit for this win goes to Le’Veon Bell. He carried this team at the end and was getting chunk after chunk of yards on every hand off. He finished with 33 carries for 204 yards and a rushing touchdown. That makes him the first running back this season to go over 200 rushing yard in a single game. I think all Steelers fans can agree that Bell is a very good all-purpose back and will become a franchise running back for the Steelers. Sadly, the Steelers released Lagarette Blount Tuesday because he decided to walk off the field early due to his lack of carries. Good riddance. Bell has shown that he can carry the team and if Blount is going to continue to act like a bonehead like he has been since college then he can go kick rocks.

My gripes with the defense are still in the secondary. They still struggle even against lackluster offenses and only get stops really when the pressure forces the QB throws a bad pass. It is good to hear that five starters on defense could potentially be back after this bye week including Ike Taylor. Despite Taylor’s potential return, the Steelers still need to build that secondary up through the next few drafts and free agency. The tackling needs to improve too. I see some plays these guys will be right there to stop a play for a loss or maybe two yards, but instead turns into a seven or eight-yard gain. Once again Mike Mitchell didn’t really do much of anything. He was good with the Panthers last year so I don’t know if he just doesn’t fit in the defense’s scheme or what. On top of this, he is now being told to stay off twitter because he wants to tweet random people back and send them direct messages telling people that “they are broke” and need to “die broke”. I hate shit like this, seriously, you’re a grown man playing on a professional sports team; stop acting like a kid playing high school football and being an immature douche

It is really refreshing to see the Steelers win before their bye and they still can control their playoff fate. After the bye, three of their last five games are at home and two of those games are against the Saints and Cheifs. These last five games will be tough, but if the Steelers can stay consistant on the offensive side of the ball and those veterans can rally that defense then the Steelers still have a great shot at making the playoffs and winning the division

Positives & Negatives:

Positives: Running game. Great push from the offensive line and Bell had a great game and carried the Steelers to a win. Also Antonio Brown had 91 yards and a touchdown. He has shown he can play big consistently week after week. A win going into a bye is always nice and the Steelers could get five offensive starters back against the Saints.

Negatives: Slow start. These guys basically waited until the fourth quarter to start playing and they cannot afford to do that at this point of the season against the remaining teams. Secondary needs to step up and make more plays and that pass rush needs to keep getting after these QBs

PS: It was tough to watch, but this win going into the bye is very encouraging hopefully these guys can get back to playing all four quarters like how they did in the fourth Monday night.