It will certainly help the Pittsburgh Steelers’ chances Sunday in Lambeau Field against Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers’ high-flying offense that key defenders such as T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith will return to action after missing the Week 3 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals with injuries.
What will also help the Steelers’ chances on Sunday in Lambeau will be an improved offense aimed at ball-control under offensive coordinator Matt Canada, according to rookie running back Najee Harris.
Speaking with reporters Friday at the South Side facility, Harris stated that the Steelers are aiming to keep Rodgers and the offense off the field as much as possible, allowing the defense to be well-rested. As they say, the best defense is a good offense the moves the chains, possesses the ball, and finishes off drives with six points.
The Steelers certainly haven’t been able to do that through three weeks, but Harris said the young, rebuilt unit is certainly going to try Sunday.
“…Aaron Rogers, obviously a great player. I don’t think it’s really too much pressure on our part, but you know, our offense, we do have to score, we do have to try our best to try to just keep Aaron off the field as much as possible,” Harris said to reporters Friday, according to Steelers.com. “But you know, it’s really no pressure. We just gotta go in the game and just do what we do best. That’s just execute and then just, you know, just try to just find ways to move the ball and score and then, you know, let everybody do their job.”
Last week, the Steelers possessed the football for more than 35 minutes, which looks fantastic on paper. Any time you can possess the football more than 60 percent of the time, you’re doing something right offensively.
However, the Steelers – as everyone is well aware of — scored just 10 points and turned the football over four times on Sunday (two interceptions, two turnover on downs), leading to a lackluster performance offensively.
Though the recipe is there to control the football with the short, quick passing game and a hopefully-improving rushing attack for Pittsburgh, it’s unlikely the Steelers will be able to truly possess the football long enough to keep Rodgers off the field long enough to limit damage, especially considering the damage Rodgers did in Week 3 to win the game on the road against the San Francisco 49ers with 37 seconds left and no timeouts, driving the Packers into field goal range.
