All offseason the Pittsburgh’s young offense talked about taking more shots downfield searching for explosive plays in the passing game, giving the Steelers a jolt offensively.
After struggling to put up points (just 18.1 points per game in 2022) and lacking an explosive downfield element offensively, the Steelers seemingly focused on it a bit more this offseason, especially as head coach Mike Tomlin and offensive coordinator Matt Canada loosened the reins on second-year quarterback Kenny Pickett.
Pickett looked much more comfortable and confident pushing the ball down the field in training camp and the preseason, putting together a preseason for the ages.
In the three-game dress rehearsal, Pickett was masterful, completing 13-of-15 passes for 199 yards and two touchdowns, hitting big plays to the likes of Diontae Johnson and George Pickens, not to mention Pat Freiermuth, sparking the Steelers offense. In the preseason alone, Pickett attempted seven passes of 10-plus yards and was an impressive 6-of-7 for 150 yards and two touchdowns. His accuracy was seemingly perfect, and he was willing to let the ball rip, giving his guys a chance.
Expectations were high for Pickett and the Steelers’ offense entering the Week One opener against the San Francisco 49ers. Add in the fact that the way to have success in the passing game against the 49ers is to throw outside the numbers and downfield — two things Pickett did very well last season — it was shaping up to be a great opportunity for the second-year quarterback to kick the door down and announce his true arrival as a guy at the position to the rest of the NFL.
Then the game happened.
Pickett was dreadful against the 49ers. He struggled with accuracy overall on the day, missing a number of throws he made quite a bit last season. Even more concerning than the accuracy issues though from Pickett was the lack of downfield passing attempts in the 30-7 blowout.
Trailing as long as they did, you’d think the Steelers would have opened the offense up a bit more and had more urgency to push the football down the field. That wasn’t the case.
According to Pro Football Focus’ passing chart, Pickett attempted just 14 passes out of 46 attempts that traveled further than 10 yards down the field. Just 14 in 46 attempts in a 23-point loss. That’s almost unheard of. Add that just eight attempts were outside the numbers, and it is clear the Steelers didn’t have a great grasp on how to attack the 49ers through the air.
Pickett completed just four of those eight attempts outside the numbers, throwing an interception early in the fourth quarter. In fact, all four of those completions outside the numbers were in the 10-19 yard window, so he didn’t exactly take shots down the field, either. Pickett attempted just four passes of 20-plus yards down the field, too. He didn’t complete a single one.
Two were targeting Diontae Johnson, one of which was intercepted by Charvarius Ward with the other a miss on the third offensive drive of the game with Johnson wide open over the middle. Pickett also couldn’t connect with George Pickens downfield on what should have been a free play in the second quarter, and his other incompletion down the field 20-plus yards was to Connor Heyward. That pass fell incomplete in the end zone with the second-year tight end trying to draw a holding call on San Francisco linebacker Dre Greenlaw.
After all the talk in the offseason about pushing the ball down the field and searching for explosive plays, the Steelers seemingly reverted to their old ways, doing so in a blowout loss, too. There was no real urgency in the passing game, no real attempting to test San Francisco vertically, especially on the outside.
That’s a major concern moving forward. It’s important to remember it’s just one game and that’s the best defense Pittsburgh will face all season long. But coming out of Sunday’s drubbing there’s not much to feel good about, and plenty to be concerned about offensively.
