The Pittsburgh Steelers enter their bye week 3-2 and atop of the AFC North. Most would be ecstatic about that scenario for Pittsburgh at this point of the season, but the positivity has been reigned in a bit based on how the team has gotten here.
The Steelers are one of the worst teams offensively in the league as they rank 29th in points, 30th in total yards, 27th in passing yards, and 30th in rushing yards through five weeks. They have a minus-31 point differential in the games they’ve played but have managed to scrap their way to a winning record and first place in the AFC North on the back of their defense making splash plays as well as a few splash plays from the offense.
QB Kenny Pickett spoke to the media prior to the team getting some much-needed time off and was asked about what he and the rest of the offense will use the bye week for in terms of trying to get this offense running more smoothly when the team takes the field again against the Los Angeles Rams in Week Seven.
“We have to look at what we’ve done as a whole,” Pickett said to the media via video from Mike DeFabo’s Twitter page. “There’s some things that we’re just not really doing well and kind of beating our head on the wall, then let’s take it out and not do it. There’s some that we feel like we have. We have guys we can put in position to be successful, we’ll attack it. I think everything’s on the table. It’s having an open mind and get to it.”
There have been numerous instances where Pittsburgh has called concepts over the last several weeks where a majority of the time, the play hasn’t worked out to its favor. OC Matt Canada has been called out by many analysts for running a very predictable offense that the defense can key in on and make splash plays like CB Steven Nelson did for the Texans in Week Four. They have stuck to the same shallow cross concept for weeks, having most instances of that play result in minimal success, if not negative outcomes for Pittsburgh’s offense.
The running game has been abysmal, and the Steelers are running more zone-heavy schemes rather than the power/gaps schemes that they were so successful with last season when they went on their run down the stretch. Perhaps Pickett and the rest of the coaching staff can work through these problems both in the running game and passing game, recognizing what hasn’t been working and be willing to go to what does work. For example, Pittsburgh could go back to running more gap and power runs, opting to pull its guards, which has been a rarity this season, to jump-start a running game that was successful doing the same thing a year ago.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Pittsburgh needs to first be willing to move off what hasn’t been working — whether it’s been the scheme or the execution of the players — and go to concepts that the players do well and build off that. That’s what they did to turn things around at the bye last year and should be their strategy this time around as well.
