After the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 27-17 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Friday night in their first preseason game it is hard not to get excited about the offense. Although the starters only played one series and Tampa Bay rested many of theirs, one thing stood out: Pittsburgh can be explosive. The Steelers tallied three explosive plays (not including a pass interference penalty) with two of them being touchdowns. Last season they had a total of 52. For reference, an explosive play is categorized as a play that goes for 20 or more yards.
After practice yesterday S Damontae Kazee joined Steelers Live and said that the offense’s explosive style is eye opening.
“What’s getting my attention is how the offense is moving this ball now,” said Kazee in his post-practice interview Sunday, which you can watch on Steelers.com. “They’re spacing it out, they’re playing catch out there, GP [George Pickens] making good plays, Tae [Diontae Johnson] making good plays. So, it’s the runs after catches for me. They’re very explosive.”
Going up against the offense in practice, Kazee has seen how explosive it can be, but it wasn’t until the other day we saw it in game action. Kazee mentioned Pickens, and he was one player who recorded an explosive play, a 33-yard touchdown catch in which he ran 21 yards after the catch for the score. That simply is something that wouldn’t have happened last year. Pickens totaled 104 yards after the catch last year and picked up a fifth of that in a single play Friday night.
The biggest explosive play was a 67-yard touchdown pitch and catch from QB Mason Rudolph to WR Calvin Austin III. Last season, Pittsburgh’s longest play from scrimmage was a 57-yard catch and run from TE Pat Freiermuth, who racked up a ton YAC (yards after catch) against the Atlanta Falcons. Such YAC was few and far between last season, and against the Buccaneers, the Steelers showed it is a point of emphasis this year.
The third explosive play of Friday night was a 24-yard pitch and catch between Rudolph and TE/FB Connor Heyward. Heyward has great hands and a knack for coming down with big catches. He is someone who if he sees more playing time this year could be on the receiving end of some explosive plays.
One way the team can get more YAC and be more explosive is by attacking the middle of the field. On Pickens’ touchdown, Pickett hit him on a slant route in the middle of the field. Last year, Pittsburgh avoided the middle of the field like the plague, throwing most passes outside the numbers, which normally will limit the amount one can do after the catch. Pickens, in particular, avoided the middle of the field, with most of his routes hugging the sidelines, playing to his contested-catch ability.
If the Steelers can be explosive when the games actually matter, it can go a long way to not only making the playoffs but also ending their playoff-win drought. To keep up with the top dogs in the AFC, the Steelers will have to score. Yes, you can score on long drives, but it is much easier to score with chunk plays littered throughout drives. Long drives where you just slowly chip away can get hairy. Penalties can set you back and if you can’t create an explosive play, you’re never going to be able to get out of that hole.
We aren’t even in the second week of the preseason so we can’t get ahead of ourselves, but so far, the Steelers offense has shown potential in 2023. There is a long way to go, and they need to do it when it matters, but it seems explosiveness may be returning to the Steel City.
