In a matchup that appeared to have “trap game” written all over it, the Pittsburgh Steelers ultimately made enough plays to overcome inconsistent play on both sides of the ball and secure a 26-18 victory on Monday Night Football. While the offense gained an impressive total of 445 yards (167 rushing and 278 passing), key errors nullified a couple of apparent Pittsburgh TDs, while Russell Wilson and company batted 0-4 in the Red Zone. In fact, without Calvin Austin’s electrifying, 73-yard punt return for a TD with about five minutes remaining in the third quarter (a play which fortunately wasn’t flagged for roughing the kicker), this game surely would have gone right down to the wire.

The Steelers defense was turning in perhaps its worst performance of the season before T.J. Watt stripped the ball from Daniel Jones and fell on the loose pigskin. Watt’s heroic strip-sack killed a Giants’ scoring drive with only about three minutes remaining in the game. But overall, the Black-and-gold defense surrendered 394 yards (157 rushing and 237 passing) including a 45-yard TD run off tackle by Tyrone Tracy Jr. and 179 yards on Jones passes to his top-2 receivers Darius Slayton and Malik Nabers.

Through most of the evening, the Giants moved the ball downfield largely at will (Tracy Jr. rushing for a total of 145 yards and a 7.3-yard average). For the most part, the only things stopping the Giants were their own penalties — several of which could be attributed directly to the raucous Pittsburgh crowd — making it nearly impossible for the Giants’ OL to hear the snap count from Jones.

This was a game which might otherwise have been a runaway win for the Steelers. As it turned out, the Steelers head into their bye-week with some nagging questions despite sporting a division-leading, 6-2 record. Perhaps most glaringly, the Steelers’ porous run defense raises some uncomfortable questions about how this defense will perform in its two upcoming games versus the Ravens and their all-world RB Derrick Henry — who already is closing in on 1,000 yards rushing.

While there’s no doubt that Russell Wilson threw some impressive passes that tend to cement his continuation as the starter, he didn’t convert TDs when presented with Red Zone opportunities. Additionally, Wilson coughed up the football on a running attempt late in the final quarter, giving the Giants a golden opportunity at a crucial juncture of the game. Of course, Wilson deserves legitimate consideration for the fact that two of his well-placed throws to George Pickens — both of which should have been TDs — were nullified (one by a holding call and another by Pickens not getting both feet down in the back of the end zone). Had those two TDs not been erased, the Steelers probably win this game easily and all is hunky dory in Steelers Nation.

While it might seem like nitpicking to point out the flaws in a winning effort, the Steelers committed enough errors on both sides of the ball on Monday night that they likely would have lost this game had their opponent been one of the NFL’s stronger teams rather than the lowly Giants. And the Steelers faithful have become only too familiar with the frustrating pattern of the offense moving the ball with ease between the 20 yard lines, only to stall out in the Red Zone and settle for FGs.

On the other hand, a win is a win — and this important victory could loom large in terms of the playoff picture later this season. Considering that the Steelers face tougher opponents in November and December, it’s a significant advantage to have stacked wins in the season’s first half. At the same time, it seems far too early to hop aboard the bandwagon, expecting the Black-and-gold to match up equally well against teams blessed with explosive offenses.

But because their bye-week seems to be coming at just about the ideal time, the Steelers now have an opportunity for a much-needed, mid-season breather. They have time now to analyze the flaws in their defense which the Giants exposed on Monday night, as well as evaluating the reasons behind their Red Zone failures. Hopefully, they get some of these issues corrected by the time they travel to Washington and square off against a dangerous, 6-2 Washington Commanders team on November 10th. And the following week, they play their first matchup against the Ravens and Derrick Henry at Acrisure. In these two looming challenges, we’ll definitely need to see considerably better performance on both sides of the ball than what we witnessed on Monday night.