Despite the stark imbalance in time of possession—the Pittsburgh Steelers only controlled the football for 22:37 against the San Francisco 49ers—they still managed to execute 61 total offensive plays, just five fewer than their opponent.
Only 10 of those were running plays, and that includes one scramble by QB Kenny Pickett. Najee Harris rushed six times. Jaylen Warren added three. Pickett attempted 46 passes. So why so imbalanced? Even Pickett wasn’t happy about it.
49ers ILB Fred Warner has a theory. Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk spoke to him briefly after the game. He said that the star defender told him it went back to the big hit he had on Harris on his first carry of the game, dropping him for lost yardage just five minutes into the game.
“It set the tone and it forced the Steelers away from the run game”, Florio recounts him saying. That was their first play of their second possession, the first consisting of two drop backs and a jet sweep in a 0-0 game. The Steelers only attempted one more run until the middle of the second quarter.
While that hit on Harris was a fierce one, and he stayed out of the game for a little while after it, it’s hard to conclude that it would account so heavily or the imbalance. Yes, the Steelers were trailing for all but their first three offensive snaps, but the game was still manageable when they were going three-and-out on a trio of drop backs.
“The run-game issues were not enough snaps, because we were three-and-out”, head coach Mike Tomlin said after the Steelers’ 30-7 loss, via the team’s website. “We’ve got to win the weighty downs. Everyone has to win the weighty downs. That’s the lifeblood of ball possession. We didn’t do a good enough job today, on either side, but particularly how we started offensively. Not good”.
Again, certainly an incomplete argument that relies upon the principle of throwing the ball to set up the run. They had four total carries on their first five possessions, totaling two yards. Only once did they follow up a run with another, gaining four yards in total and then throwing incomplete on third and 6.
Everything looks worse when your offense is only moving three plays at a time and not picking up first downs or scoring, obviously. The general game factors didn’t really favor running the ball very much. They did try running the ball early in the game, the only problem being they were not having success doing it.
Harris finally broke loose for a 24-yard run on third and 1 during a two-minute drill at the end of the first half, helping to contribute to the Steelers’ only scoring drive. That one play accounts for more than half of their total offensive yardage for the afternoon.
