The Pittsburgh Steelers only have two 100-yard rushing games this season—as a team. They are one of six teams that can say that this year, with only the New England Patriots and the Cincinnati Bengals having fewer than two such games.
And where is the hope for improvement? They have been under 100 yards for three consecutive weeks. Granted, the Jacksonville Jaguars have a good run defense, as do the Baltimore Ravens, but the Steelers should have been able to run against the Los Angeles Rams, at least. Well, they did a little bit, in spurts.
But it’s not what the Steelers need the run game to be. Everybody in that locker room knows it, talks about it, but doesn’t actually seem to know how to get it fixed. And I hardly think it’s just a matter of passing time making it easier to run, but C Mason Cole doesn’t have much else to cling to.
“As the season goes on, the run game becomes more prominent. When the weather gets bad and people are banged up, the physicality part of the game becomes more of a thing, and we’re just not there yet”, he told reporters yesterday, via the team’s website.
“We haven’t gotten to that point. We’re not executing well enough and doing that we’re putting a lot of pressure on our quarterbacks”, he added. “We’re not running the ball well, so now we’re throwing the ball all over the place, and that could be a recipe for disaster at times”.
I can’t help but wonder if he was directly thinking about QB Mitch Trubisky’s costly fourth-quarter interception on which he forced the ball into good coverage. The Steelers had been doing a better job protecting the football.
But the game against the Jaguars was particularly bad in terms of having success on designed runs. Trubisky and Kenny Picket had 28 of the Steelers’ 70 yards on quarterback scrambles. Najee Harris had just 13 yards on seven carries. Jaylen Warren had 19 yards on five carries, which is at least respectable. WR Calvin Austin III had one run of 10 yards and another on which he gained nothing.
While the Steelers did run the football significantly better in the second half of last season, it wasn’t just because the leaves changed or people’s bodies were a little bit achier. It’s because they executed better, were more physical, were more varied.
You only run the football in November and December better than you do in September and October if you’re actually better at running the football. The circumstances don’t become easier to run the ball. The circumstances just make it harder to throw. Week-to-week physical attrition is pretty minor as far as I’m concerned.
