Mark Madden: Think these are the best of times for Steelers? You're fooling yourself

The Pittsburgh Steelers should change their rally song. Stick with Styx. But try “Grand Illusion” instead of “Renegade.”

The Steelers have been outgained in every game, and by 790 yards on the season. They have been outscored by 30 points. Their quarterback is pedestrian: Kenny Pickett completed just two passes of more than 7 yards downfield against Tennessee on Thursday. All five of the Steelers’ wins have come by inside of one score.

Yet the Steelers are 5-3. They’re going to be 6-3 after beating Green Bay a week from this Sunday.

Some good things are happening:

• Despite a stupid and potentially costly unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after a late extra point, rookie Broderick Jones played well at right tackle Thursday. At long last, the Steelers have their two best tackles on the field.

• Rookie Joey Porter Jr. often matched up against DeAndre Hopkins, Tennessee’s top receiver. In seven targets with Porter covering, Hopkins got just one catch for 12 yards. The Steelers might finally have a shutdown corner.

• The Steelers scored a touchdown on their first possession. First time all year.

• Diontae Johnson caught a touchdown after 667 days and 21 games without one. That’s 223 days longer than the Iranian hostage crisis, if that adds perspective. Johnson hadn’t caught a TD since Ben Roethlisberger quit. Johnson persevered through injury and a lot of drops.

• Offensive coordinator Matt Canada was on the sideline, not in the coaches’ booth. I don’t know if that helped. I’m not sure Canada called a better game. The offense still only scored 20 points. But the Steelers were able to run the ball: Jaylen Warren had 88 yards, averaging 8 yards per carry. Najee Harris added 69 yards. That did a lot to win the game.

• So did the pass rush. The Steelers got four sacks and 10 QB hits. Alex Highsmith had two of the former, five of the latter. Titans rookie quarterback Will Levis was under siege.

But the conversation, as always, comes back to Pickett.

He might be Kenny Clutch, but he’s no better than an average quarterback. You can’t base a career on intangibles.

On Thursday, Pickett completed 19 of 30 passes for 160 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions.

Zero picks is good. But the Steelers are so deathly afraid of interceptions that most of the risk has been removed from Pickett’s game, which limits his potential for playmaking and keeps him from improving.

It also minimizes George Pickens.

Pickens had just five targets Thursday, catching two for a total of minus-1 yard. He could be seen fuming on the sideline. That figures to become a familiar sight. (Pickens also failed to get two feet down on what should have been a touchdown catch. That’s on him.)

The Steelers don’t think big picture. The only focus is on winning the next game. That and the Steelers’ Neanderthal offensive approach prevent Pickett from progressing. (All that is because of Mike Tomlin, not Canada.)

Can the Steelers defeat a truly good team, let alone in a playoff setting? Probably not. They’re hardly a lock to even make the postseason.

But pretending is what’s fun. Someday soon we’ll start to ponder what on earth’s this spell we’re under …