In the Week One loss to the San Francisco 49ers, the Pittsburgh Steelers were playing from behind early and often, leading to a significant lack of balance offensively.
That caused some concerns for second-year quarterback Kenny Pickett, who stated after the game he wanted to see more balance offensively from the Black and Gold. Against San Francisco, Pittsburgh dropped back to pass 50 times (an additional pass attempt was a flip to Calvin Austin III on a play that mimicked a jet sweep) and attempted just 10 rushes. Though Pittsburgh trailed early and never came within 13 points in the game, there was a noticeable lack of running the football early that got the Steelers out of sorts.
It certainly didn’t help that Pickett couldn’t hit some layup-like throws to move the chains and keep the offense on the field. But in the Steelers’ first 12 offensive plays, when the score was still relatively close, Pittsburgh ran the ball just twice and then largely abandoned the run.
Now, entering Week Two, CBS Sports believes that the Steelers need to fix one thing offensively: running the football more.
“Easier said than done when the team faces a 20-0 deficit midway through the second quarter, but the Steelers only had 10 carries in Sunday’s loss to the 49ers — and one of them was Kenny Pickett,” CBS Sports’ Jeff Kerr writes regarding the Steelers’ offense. “Going three-and-out on four of the first five possessions (with an interception on the other possession) could be avoided by giving the ball to Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren. That’s on Matt Canada.”
All offseason the Steelers talked about knowing their identity offensively, thanks to their play down the stretch in the 2022 season. The run game took off in the second half of last season as Pittsburgh became the No. 7 rushing attack in the NFL.
Then, in the offseason the Steelers continued to add to that identity, signing veteran guard Isaac Seumalo in free agency, trading up to draft left tackle Broderick Jones in the first round and adding tight end Darnell Washington in the third round, leaning heavily into the bully-ball scheme.
They did all that to…run the football twice in the first 12 plays and run the ball just 10 overall times in the season-opening loss.
Again, play calling within the game situation largely had to do with imbalance offensively, but there was never a real emphasis on trying to establish the run early on. The belief in the league is that you throw to set up the run, but the Steelers had more success last season running to set up the pass.
They seemingly abandoned that on Sunday and it cost them. Hopefully they lean into that bully-ball style more in Week Two on Monday Night Football against the Cleveland Browns.
