Steelers put up a fight in the midseason

Pat Freiermuth has talked about the variants on the Pittsburgh Steelers’ roster. The rookie tight end might as well have been talking about himself.

“We’re relentless,” Freiermuth said after a 29-27 win over the Chicago Bears that put Pittsburgh at a 5-3 record as the season reaches its halfway point. “We can play. We can feed off each other.”

And perhaps most importantly, they can lean on each other.

Pittsburgh has reeled off four straight wins after a 1-3 start and finds itself in a good position within the American Conference, closer to the fight for a postseason berth than it is to being at the bottom, the place to which it seemed doomed after that uncertain start.

Far from allowing panic to set in — something head coach Mike Tomlin repeatedly said was not an option — the Steelers worked hard. The offense stopped giving the ball away. The ground attack began to operate behind rookie Najee Harris.

Freiermuth took Eric Ebron’s place as the starter and immediately became one of Ben Roethlisberger’s favorite targets.

The 23-year-old caught two touchdowns against the Bears, the team’s first multiple touchdown game for a first-year tight end since Heath Miller did it in 2005. Freiermuth’s production is emblematic of a generation of players keeping the Steelers competitive in the twilight of Roethlisberger’s standout career.

Although there seems to be a lot of pressure, Freiermuth and Harris seem unfazed by it. They got Pittsburgh’s three touchdowns on Monday night and became two vital components of a unit that is probably getting slower, but is finding a better running game.

Whether the Steelers are legitimate contenders or simply their reaction is a product of part of their schedule–only one of the wins in this streak has come against a team with a winning record–is something to be discovered later. They’re definitely in the fight, for now.

What’s working?
Roethlisberger seems to have figured out what was bothering him about his mechanics when throwing passes. He’s not at his best — his passer rating of 90.0 is No. 21 in the league, sandwiched between Jalen Hurts of the Philadelphia Eagles and Mac Jones of the New England Patriots — but he’s avoiding making mistakes. Roethlisberger hasn’t had an interception since the loss to the Green Bay Packers on Oct. 3.

What’s missing.
The second-half defense could use help. In three of Pittsburgh’s wins during the current streak, the Steelers have had double-digit leads. And those three times they had to hold on to victories down the stretch of games. It will be necessary to knock off opponents in the remainder of the schedule.