It’s no secret that the Pittsburgh Steelers have had trouble generating points on offense this season. With only four offensive touchdowns, they rank ahead of only the sputtering Cincinnati Bengals through four weeks.
There are some concerns in particular about the slow starts the offense has put together this season, and how it forces the team to play from behind. Matt Canada has alluded to the fact that this is not an offense built for comebacks. It’s tough to establish the run, something this team wants to do, when you face a deficit early.
Quarterback Kenny Pickett shared his thoughts on the running game, especially in situations when the running game isn’t firing on all cylinders, in an interview shared by the team.
“If it’s not working, then you can’t just beat your head in the wall.” Pickett noted. “We gotta continue to have those productive runs where we get the play actions off of it and do and be the balanced team that we know we want to be.”
The Steelers’ running game hasn’t exactly gotten going this season, as they’ve failed both in volume and efficiency at establishing the run. Efficiency-wise, they rank in the bottom ten in the league in yards per carry at a measly 3.6. Volume-wise, they are bottom ten in rushing attempts, bottom five in rushing yards, and have a measly zero rushing touchdowns. Only the Minnesota Vikings also don’t have a rushing touchdown, and they’ve run the ball just 73 times this season, the lowest in the league.
So, is Najee Harris the problem? Kenny Pickett certainly doesn’t think so and shared these thoughts on Harris in the same interview, where he praised the running back’s performance in the second half last week.
“[Najee] is our guy. He runs hard and when he gets going like that, I think you saw the momentum of the offense pick up and we started doing what we know we could do.” Pickett remarked. “We just didn’t finish in the red zone. Whether that be the negative plays or not executing where we need to execute. Getting him going obviously is always something that we wanna do early on.”
For as bad of a game as the Steelers played on Sunday, Harris was a bright spot and actually had a pretty decent performance. On both of the Steelers scoring drives, the first two drives in the second half, Harris made his impact felt. Harris had 63 yards on those two drives combined, both on the ground and through the air. He’s been pretty remarkable at breaking tackles this year, too.
For this team to be successful, they will need to run the ball well. Even the biggest Pickett supporters know that he’s not built to win shootouts yet. The script for this team to win remains the same as it has been over the past few years: control the game with your defense and slow down the tempo. Let’s hope they can do it on Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens.
