There is a certain enigmatic quality surrounding the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense. In theory, they have talent, especially at the skill positions. In practice, they really struggle to put it all together. They put pieces together here and there, working in spurts, but when are we going to see the whole puzzle?
At least so far, the pieces we have revealed have been enough to win a couple of games in the early goings, and have been enough to have the attention of opposing defensive coordinators. Take Matt Burke, for example, who heads the Houston Texans’ defense, who will be working to control these guys tomorrow.
“In general, it’s a quick passing game attack, but then, they’re going to take their shots”, he told reporters earlier this week, via transcript provided by the team. “Those guys, 19 [Calvin Austin III] can run, you know what I mean? [Pat] Freiermuth can get in the seam and those sorts of things, so it is a balance”.
Both Austin and Freiermuth caught touchdowns in the Steelers’ last game, so they’re not hard to identify. The former in particular went for 72 yards to score his, which was the longest play for Pittsburgh since early in the 2020 season. The third-year tight end has scored twice already this year, matching his total from a year ago.
Of course it’s not just the two of them. The current star of the offense is WR George Pickens, who has caught eight passes for 202 yards and a 71-yard touchdown over the past two games. And one would hope Diontae Johnson will be returning soon. That’s not the mention the running backs and the other tight ends. But Burke is conscious of how his unit has to defend this Steelers offense.
“Sometimes that’s the game of don’t get bored with tackling those quick throws, and they’re trying to get you up, get you up, get you up, and then all of the sudden, put one over the top”, he said. After all, the Steelers have managed to do that in consecutive weeks now. Their longest touchdown pass last year was just 31 yards. They hadn’t had one longer than 50 since Chase Claypool’s 84-yard score back in September 2020.
The way this offense is currently running in fits and starts, the Steelers are going to have to rely upon that occasional big-play setup in order to find success. They were able to move the ball down the field methodically last season, even if they struggled to finish drives. Now they’re often having a hard time just getting them started.
Perhaps they can manage that against the Texans’ middling defense, which ranks 22nd in points allowed and 15th in yards allowed. While they haven’t given up many passing touchdowns, they have surrendered the second-most on the ground. If the Steelers can manage to find the end zone, that might be useful to remember.
