Everyone seems to agree the Pittsburgh Steelers have plenty of room for improvement--specifically with their running game--following their 23-20 win against the Indianapolis Colts, yet SB Nation, CBS, and Fox all moved the Steelers ahead in their power rankings anyway. What makes ESPN's just-published power rankings unique, then, is its voters' decision to bump the Steelers down, from 9th last week to 10th this week. "The Steelers must fix their offensive line if they plan to make another deep playoff run," says James Walker, echoing CBS's Pete Prisco.
Further, there's a wide disparity between ESPN's panel of power-rankings voters with regard to how they feel about the Steelers. John Clayton ranked them 15th on his ballot, for example, but Ashley Fox had them at 6th.
What's clear is that Pittsburgh has problems it needs to address, but it doesn't appear as though there's a consensus as to how successful they'll be in fixing those problems as the season wears on.