Just in the way there’s a running theme of Pittsburgh Steelers’ loss, two in five days, there was a running theme, a reoccurring phrase Mitch Trubisky had in his post-game press conference. Brutally honest. With an offense somehow looking less effective than last year, a dose of honesty and accountability is sorely needed.
Talking to reporters, Trubisky says players need to watch the film and truly evaluate their overall play.
“Everyone’s just gotta be brutally honest with themselves,” he said via the Steelers’ YouTube channel. “I think everybody can be a lot better, myself included.”
If we’re being brutally honest, the Steelers’ offense is straight up brutal. Through three games, their offense has scored 16, 14, and 17 points, excluding Minkah Fitzpatrick’s pick-six to start the season. Pittsburgh has just four offensive touchdowns through three games. Their third down offense is among the worst in the league, going 4/15 in the opener, 1/4 in the second half of Week Two, and 1/9 on Thursday night. The run game is below average and stalled out in the second half, the pass game stumbling and unable to sustain, and the overall second half offense has gone into a shell with five three-and-out possessions over the last pair of second halves.
Other than that, things are working well.
While the Steelers’ blueprint to win coming into the season certainly didn’t include winning high-scoring shootouts, the offense needs to do more than what it’s doing. That doesn’t fully absolve the defense, they have their own sets of problems, but they’re what’s keeping the offense in games. 20 points to the Bengals, 17 to the Patriots, 23 to the Browns, those are all numbers you can live with. The film doesn’t lie and it shows an offense that is gasping for air.
“Everyone’s just gotta be on board with what we need to improve at and just be brutally honest about the film and where we’re at overall,” Trubisky said later in the presser, repeating that same phrase.
Thursday night’s tape will show missed opportunities. Another end-of-half offensive scoring chance that ended without even a field goal try. A perfectly thrown ball by Trubisky that sifted through Diontae Johnson’s hands, not to mention another drop he had on a screen pass. An ineligible man downfield call that wiped out a huge shovel pass play to Jaylen Warren, a true tide-turner in the loss. Things that shouldn’t happen on plays that get repped as often as Pittsburgh’s shovel pass.
The tape doesn’t lie. The Steelers’ offense is bad. And that’s the brutal truth.
