I’ve gone back through every single Pittsburgh Steelers designed run of the season. Not that there’s been many. But it sure wasn’t pretty. While there’s a lot broken about this running game — we’ll dive into the X’s and O’s in a separate video to discuss one key point — there’s something the Steelers haven’t even tried to do in order to fix it.
We’ll talk about that in a moment but below is a breakdown of every run concept from Week One against the San Francisco 49ers and Week Two versus the Cleveland Browns. I’ll share some additional thoughts below.
Week One (49ers Game)
| Scheme | Times Run |
|---|---|
| Zone | 5 |
| Man/Duo | 2 |
| Gap | 1 |
| Counter | 1 |
Week Two (Browns Game)
| Scheme | Times Run |
|---|---|
| Zone | 7 |
| Man/Duo | 7 |
| Crack Toss | 1 |
| Wham | 1 |
| Crunch | 1 |
| End Around | 1 |
| Counter | 1 |
| Read Option | 1 |
Total (Through Two Weeks)
| Scheme | Times Run |
|---|---|
| Zone | 12 |
| Man/Duo | 9 |
| Counter | 2 |
| Wham | 1 |
| Crunch | 1 |
| End Around | 1 |
| Crack Toss | 1 |
| Gap | 1 |
| Read Option | 1 |
One point of clarification. Some of these could’ve been lumped a bit more together. The counter and the crack toss with the man runs. Ditto with wham/crunch. But I wanted to be as specific as I could with the type of run.
Zone has been the team’s most popular run concept. Man/duo is right behind with a mix of other calls. I should’ve run the numbers alongside the calls but from my eyeball test, the man/duo schemes have been far more effective than anything else. The zone runs have been especially poor.
What is most incredible, and the headline of the article is, the Steelers have not pulled their guards on a run play this season. Not once. They’ve done it more on pass plays. The only gap run I have charted came on a pin/pull scheme when C Mason Cole folded around LG Isaac Seumalo on a two-yard run. And the counter runs I charted were counter action by the running back, not true counter plays with a backside pulling guard.
Over the past two offseasons, Pittsburgh has made splash signings at guard. First, they signed James Daniels to a three-year deal. This past offseason, they added Isaac Seumalo to his own three-year contract. They’re two physical and athletic linemen who are capable of pulling, getting out in space, and burying someone. Seumalo especially. It’s not like the guy can’t pull. In our initial film study following his signing, we shared this clip of him pulling and logging the Chiefs’ right outside linebacker in the Super Bowl.
The reason for the Steelers’ lack of a gap scheme is unclear. It’s easy to blame Matt Canada here and as the offensive coordinator, he bears some responsibility. But the way it’s normally worked in Pittsburgh over the years is that the offensive line coach is essentially the run game coordinator. Meaning this falls more on second-year OL Coach Pat Meyer. It does seem like he doesn’t run a lot of gap/power — the Steelers didn’t do much of it last year – but it sure seems like something to try.
Pittsburgh’s identity was supposed to be bully ball. They talked about it all offseason. Big, physical people who would move the opponent from Point A to Point B. A gap scheme is all about physicality. A double-team on the front side to of the play, the backside guard pulling and either kicking out the EMOL or turning him inside if he tries to spill/wrong-arm. That’ll help set the tone for a Steelers team that badly needs it.
They have the personnel. And they’ve tried about everything else to little success. I don’t understand why it’s basically the one thing they haven’t done. Maybe it’s a concern with the tight end blocking. Often on gap schemes, the backside guard and the off-ball tight end come around to help replace numbers lost by the frontside guard and tackle double-teaming. Pat Freiermuth is a below-average blocker and Connor Heyward lacks size but Darnell Washington, at the least, can do it. And the tight end doesn’t have to be involved. You can run it with just the guard.
I’m not saying this will be guaranteed success. Little has gone right for the Steelers and their run game so far. But it’s at least worth a shot, no? David DeCastro, Alan Faneca, Moon Mullins. Pittsburgh’s run game is at its best when they’ve got guards on the move. Time to get back to that.
