The Pittsburgh Steelers rank 27th in the NFL in points scored per game. For the first time with Ben Roethlisberger at quarterback for the majority of the season, they have allowed more points than they have scored, up to this point.
In spite of that, they have a winning record, and are riding a three-game winning streak. That is ultimately what the team’s focus is on, even if they understand that there is work to do to ensure that they can continue to stack those coveted wins.
“We’ve won the last three”, offensive coordinator Matt Canada told reporters earlier today, when asked to assess the progression of the offense over the course of the season, via the team’s media department. “I think there’s little steps we’ve made. We’re not where we want to be yet. Obviously, we have to score more points, but the bottom line is winning. We have won”.
The Steelers started out strong—for the most part—putting together a 23-16 road win over the Buffalo Bills, which saw the offense benefit from a blocked punt returned for a touchdown. They proceeded to go on a three-game losing streak, however, during which they averaged under 15 points per game. They are averaging closer to 22 points per game over the past three, all wins.
“Each week you just want to win and get out of the stadium, and we’ve done that the last three weeks, but we’ve got to continue to improve our running game, and improve everything”, Canada said. “We’re making some steps, we’re starting to see a little bit more of what we want to be, but we have to be more consistent”.
The Steelers did only put up 15 points on Sunday against the Cleveland Browns, albeit on the road, and against one of the better defenses in the league. Part of that could be attributed to their lack of a kicker for most of the game, which may have cost them about five points or so.
“We’re not by any means satisfied. We have to score more points”, their first-year offensive coordinator emphasized, understanding that they have been held to 17 points or under on offense in five of their seven games thus far. “But we’re not chasing numbers, we’re just chasing wins”.
Recency bias favors the attitude, as they haven’t lost a game in over a month now, but they’re still just 4-3 on the season, one game over .500, which is certainly not the position that they want to be in. They know the next couple of games are important before they head out to Los Angeles to face the Chargers and then match up with the division-rival Bengals and Ravens. They’re hoping to be 6-3 by that point—and scoring more readily, as well.
