Steelers rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett started and finished a win for the first time in last Sunday’s 20-10 victory over the Saints and he did it by avoiding some of the mistakes that have plagued him in previous games.
Pickett threw four interceptions in his previous two starts, but didn’t turn the ball over at all while going 18-of-30 for 199 yards and running eight times for 51 yards and a touchdown. Those positives would have likely shined even brighter if three trips into New Orleans territory didn’t end in field goal attempts. Pickett was sacked before each of those attempts — Matthew Wright missed two of them — and that’s part of what he needs to clean up as a decision maker in the future.
“It’s going to continue to get better,” Pickett said, via Joe Rutter of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “I’m nowhere where I need or want to be. It’s a day at a time. There are things we liked that I’ve done that I can continue to improve on. There are things I can get a lot better at. It’s knowing what those things are and finding that out and going and attacking it.”
At 3-6, the Steelers face an uphill climb if they’re going to challenge for a winning record this season but any result will be easier to swallow if it comes with the kind of growth from Pickett that makes the future look brighter than the present.
