PITTSBURGH — ESPN's Troy Aikman delivered an ear opener early in the second half of the Steelers' 26-18 victory over the New York Giants, recounting Saturday's television production meeting with Mike Tomlin.

"Mike Tomlin told us this is not a quarterback-centric team," Aikman said.

Oh, yes it is. Every NFL team, for better or worse, is quarterback-centric. That's just the way it works. Quarterback is the most important position in all of sports. Sure, you can win a championship with Trent Dilfer if you have the 2000 Ravens defense. The Steelers don't.

This team has not been a serious AFC threat since Ben Roethlisberger's second-to-last year — and maybe not even then — largely because it did not have good enough quarterbacking.

In other words, the Steelers' middle-of-the-pack status was very much quarterback-centric. So is their apparent ascent to actual contender (We'll find out more when the schedule toughens). Graduating from an amateur offensive coordinator to a real one has greatly aided the process, as well.

New coordinator Arthur Smith and new quarterback Russell Wilson are the two biggest reasons this Steelers team appears much more formidable than last year's, which probably would have lost this game, much the way it lost back-to-back home games to a pair of 2-10 games late in the season.

Explosive offense can make up for a lot of things, including the kind of shoddy defense we saw from the Steelers for large portions of Monday night's game.

Sure, last year's Steelers rebounded to scrape into the playoffs and get hammered again in the first round, but something significant happened along the way and has repeated itself this season — and Smith and Wilson are at the center of it.

Tomlin had a radical change in philosophy.

I have repeated this many times in this space, but truly, it can't be repeated enough. I don't think it's talked about enough, either: When the Steelers fired offensive coordinator Matt Canada last season, Tomlin, for the first time in his Steelers tenure, admitted that just winning was not enough. He finally saw what the rest of us saw: Barely winning more than you lose — and winning ugly every time you win — is not a recipe for championships.

The Steelers were 6-4 at the time, but Tomlin said he wanted to "engineer victory more fluidly." That was radically different.

Sure, he still talks about how "winning is our business" after ugly wins and claims not to care about style points or the like, but he applied his new philosophy to the recent quarterback change, as well. The Steelers were 4-2 with Justin Fields, but Tomlin explicitly stated that good wasn't good enough. He is shooting for great.

Wilson is giving him great, operating a legitimate, mature NFL offense under Smith's direction. Tomlin erred horrifically in hitching his team's fate to Kenny Pickett and Matt Canada, but there's nothing anybody can do about that now.

All we can do is watch Russ cook.

How about this guy?

Since the first four series of the Jets game, which followed nearly 10 months without a meaningful snap, Wilson is 34 of 49 for 523 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions and a passer rating of 124.8. That's cookin'. And it doesn't include two touchdown passes to George Pickens that were wiped out Monday.

One was disallowed because two of the same feet don't equal two different feet, or one foot and one elbow, or one rear end, or something like that. The other got taken off the board because of a Broderick Jones penalty.

The 43-yard pass to Pickens in the fourth quarter — Smitty dialing up a shot — was as pretty a pass as you'll ever see. It went 44 yards in the air, right at the sideline, over two defenders.

That kind of throw opens entirely new worlds for the Steelers offense.

Also — and this is noteworthy — it felt like this offense had gone about five years without a game in which receivers were running wide open. You know, like every other team has from time to time. That has changed. Aikman called the touchdown pass to Calvin Austin III "an easy pitch and catch."

When was the last time you heard that phrase applied to the Steelers?

Aikman pointed out that Wilson seemed to know what he wanted to do before the snap on multiple plays. His dink-and-dunk game looks elite, too. Pro Football Focus has Wilson with these numbers on short throws since he became the starter: 16 for 21 for 193 yards, three touchdowns and zero interceptions.

Yes, Wilson fumbled late, but T.J. Watt bailed him out with a strip sack of Daniel Jones. The defense owed him one.

Give the head coach some credit here. Tomlin was talking to Fox reporter Jay Glazer about why he went to Wilson — to see if good could become great.

Glazer reported Tomlin's words this way: "I'm not trying to win games. I'm trying to win a world title here."

We'll see where all this goes when the schedule stiffens, but the Steelers finally have the makings of an explosive offense.

Meanwhile ...

— The defense made splash plays late but was largely disappointing. It got gouged for nearly 400 yards, including 145 on the ground from Tyrone Tracy Jr. If not for a ticky-tack call and a sometimes disorganized Giants offense, this could have been way worse. I'd say the defense has played poorly in three of the past five games. That better change when Joe Burrow, Patrick Mahomes, Saquon Barkley, Jayden Daniels, Derrick Henry, Lamar Jackson and others come calling post-bye.

— Tomlin should have called timeout to give his pass rushers a rest on the Giants' final drive. If that series doesn't work out with a Beanie Bishop Jr. interception, we'd have quite the talking point — Watt and Alex Highsmith on the sidelines with the game on the line.

— Giants coach Brian Daboll going for two, down eight with tons of time left, was ridiculous. Take the extra point. Instead, the Giants ran one of the worst plays in NFL history and left the offense needing a touchdown and a two-point conversion to tie.

— That play, by the way, was flat-out funny. It featured five Giants split wide to the left, with one man to block (Alex Highsmith). None of the five moved when the ball was snapped, and Highsmith busted through to make an easy tackle. While showing the replay, Aikman just burst out laughing.

— Giants tackle Jermaine Eluemunor learned the hard way: Don't poke the bear that is T.J. Watt. Eluemunor told reporters last week he would welcome blocking Watt with no help.

"I'm the most confident guy in this locker room," Eluemunor said. "I think you can see this through my play this year. I want to be on an island with him all day."

Yeah? Well, by the end of the game, Watt sent Eluemunor to the Island of Misfit Tackles. When nobody helped Eluemunor, Watt destroyed him, finishing with seven tackles, two sacks, a forced fumble and a recovered fumble (the latter two events happening on the same pivotal play, with Watt being single blocked).

— Nice games from Austin and Van Jefferson might have people saying the Steelers don't need another receiver. Don't believe them. Jefferson made a great play, and Austin has looked more a part of the offense this season, but the Steelers could use one more trustworthy weapon. As ex-Steelers cornerback Patrick Peterson told 93.7 The Fan, Adam Thielen would be an excellent addition.

Go get him.

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