In the first two weeks of the 2023 season, the offense of the Pittsburgh Steelers had been, well, offensive.
There’s been talk of lacking balance offensively, losing their mojo, and more.
Things seemed to change in a positive fashion in Week Three on Sunday Night Football in Las Vegas.
For the first time this season, the Steelers had real balance, were able to get into a rhythm offensively and nearly put together a complete performance on that side of the football before stalling late in a 23-18 win over the Las Vegas Raiders that moved them to 2-1 on the season.
Coming out of the Week Three win, second-year quarterback Kenny Pickett was pretty pleased with what he saw from the offense, stating to Sunday Night Football’s sideline reporter Melissa Stark after the win that he learned that the Steelers are a sucessful offense when getting everyone involved.
“When we’re balanced, we’re dangerous. It’s the ultimate team game,” Pickett said to Stark, according to video on Twitter of the postgame interview on NBC. “I think we got great players on the outside. Great backs, great guys up front, and when we’re balanced that’s when we’re at our best.”
It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that when an offense is balanced and not one-dimensional, it can move the football with consistency and look like a real, competent unit overall.
Pickett lamented the lack of balance in the Week One loss to the San Francisco 49ers after the Steelers abandoned the run early on in the 30-7 loss. They weren’t all that balanced in Week Two against the Cleveland Browns, either, riding a historic defensive performance to a 26-22 win.
But on Sunday Night Football in Week Three Pittsburgh was balanced. It showed, too.
The Steelers threw the football 28 times and ran the football another 31 times, though some of those runs were Pickett scrambles to keep plays alive and make plays with his legs.
That balance though and a clear emphasis on running the football led to a strong performance in the run game from the Steelers’ offensive line and third-year running back Najee Harris.
Harris rushed for 65 yards on 19 carries, looking at his best working downhill when the Steelers kept it simple and relied on power and duo, rather than on zone runs. Jaylen Warren added another 29 rushing yards on eight carries as the Steelers really hammered it downhill against the Raiders’ front.
Things looked as good as they have in the Matt Canada tenure after Patrick Peterson’s interception in the third quarter. That led to the Steelers’ offense putting together an impressive drive, marching 81 yards in six plays, utilizing a bunch of play-action, getting Pickett on the move and hammering the football between the tackles, keeping the Raiders off-balance and guessing defensively.
Pickett hit George Pickens for 17 yards over the middle on the first play of the drive and then found Warren for 16 yards on a well-executed screen. After that, Pickett found Pat Freiermuth over the middle for 14 yards. Harris then ripped off a 17-yard run off left tackle and then on a play-action fake rolling to his left, Pickett found Freiermuth wide open for a 13-yard touchdown, pushing Pittsburgh’s lead to 23-7.
That drive is something the Steelers can certainly build off of, according to Pickett.
“I think so. I think you saw a lot of different things in that drive. Play-action strike to GP [Pickens] and Pat [Freiermuth] over in the middle, Pat off the bootleg,” Pickett said to reporters following the win, according to video via the Steelers’ official YouTube page.. “There was a lot of different things in that drive that were really positive. So I absolutely think that’s a positive we could take away.”
It certainly is a positive that the Steelers can build off of, and it’s a good reminder for Canada that the Steelers can win with play-action, bootlegs and power rushing attacks, rather than trying to get too cute with misdirection stuff.
Of course, after that touchdown drive though the Steelers ran 13 plays for 20 yards with one of those plays being a kneel down. Not great!
Small victories though. The Steelers, like Pickett said, are a dangerous offense when they are balanced. They should be searching for the balance every week like they had Sunday night.
