Mark Madden: Victory over Raiders proved no game will be easy for the Steelers

In today’s culture, we skip right to the ending before the story plays out.

To that end, let’s draw a few hasty conclusions in the wake of the Steelers’ narrow 23-18 victory at Las Vegas:

• No game will be easy for the Steelers. That goes for Sunday’s trip to rotten Houston, where the Steelers are favored by three. The Steelers are too flawed. They don’t extend leads. They sit on them. The Steelers will sweat every win and probably blow a few. (By the way, Houston rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud has much better stats this season than Kenny Pickett.)

• The Steelers won’t beat good teams by any way besides fluke. Good teams score more and faster. The Steelers don’t. Their defense has too many holes to limit teams that do. T.J. Watt might be football’s best defensive player. He’s a wagon. But he’s one guy.

There will be exceptions. But those are the rules. The Steelers are an OK team, no better. Not likely to win a playoff game.

But the Steelers do lead the AFC North.

They are making strides, especially offensively. (Being terrible initially lends itself well to improvement.)

Does offensive coordinator Matt Canada get any credit? Or do they fail because of him but succeed despite him?

Sunday’s win featured more play-action. A decent dose of chunk plays. The passing game used the middle. The Steelers were 1 for 1 in the red zone. They converted 40% of their third downs. Tight end Pat Freiermuth was involved. Wideout Calvin Austin III finally showed up. The offensive line played better. Less zone blocking.

Many of you would like to think that all that good happened despite Canada campaigning vigorously against it.

Sunday’s offensive showing got Canada a week off from being the primary scapegoat. (OK, not really. But at least the sniping is passive/aggressive.)

Pickett was good, not great. He looked relaxed, anyway. He made a few plays with his feet.

Pickett finally threw two touchdowns in a game. In his 16th NFL game. Let the pigeons loose!

Everything the Steelers did offensively at Las Vegas is legit. What could happen, does.

But playing a defense ranked in the NFL’s bottom half instead of juggernaut units like San Francisco and Cleveland certainly helped, and the Steelers still only got 23 points. (At least they topped 20. That’s two weeks in a row, and this time without two touchdowns by the defense like against Cleveland.)

The games are either exciting or seem like they last forever, depending on your point of view. These last two Steelers games felt like they had seven quarters.

Steeler Nation took over Las Vegas. Let’s see if it takes over Houston. Houston isn’t as much fun to invade. How come nobody ever takes over, say, Altoona?

He wasn’t the game’s MVP. But if it was like hockey, punter Pressley Harvin III deserved one of the evening’s Three Stars.

A week after nailing second-half punts at Cleveland’s 6- and 1-yard lines, Harvin averaged almost 54 yards per kick at Las Vegas. With the game still in doubt, Harvin crushed a 56-yarder with 23 seconds left. It left the Raiders pinned at their 15. Harvin previously boomed a 63-yarder.

Harvin was reportedly in danger of losing his job going into the game vs. Cleveland. Accountability can be inspiring. Shame it’s only applied to the punter.