Throughout the fourth quarter of the Week Seven come-from-behind victory over the Los Angeles Rams on the road, the Pittsburgh Steelers did something they haven’t done this season offensively: impose their will.
The Steelers took it to the Rams in the fourth quarter, racking up 11:55 time of possession as they scored two touchdowns and were able to put the game away in the fourth quarter with some strong four-minute offense, never giving the ball back to the Rams.
It reminded many of what the Steelers once were, which is a power-rushing attack that wears teams down late and just delivers body blows in the fourth quarter on the way to wins.
For NFL Network’s Rhett Lewis, that’s what he saw from the Steelers Sunday in Los Angeles. Appearing on the “Move The Sticks” podcast with co-hosts Daniel Jeremiah and Bucky Brooks, Lewis stated that the Steelers seemingly remembered who they are in the fourth quarter Sunday, punishing Los Angeles with a physical rushing attack.
“This really comes down to the fourth quarter for me, really the third and fourth quarter with the Steelers. Third quarter because T.J. Watt picks off Matthew Stafford, sets up the Steelers offense, they punch it into the end zone. They’re back, they’re starting to get that momentum. And then in the fourth quarter is where I really felt like this team kind of came to play,” Lewis said to Jeremiah and Brooks regarding the Steelers’ fourth quarter showing. “The Steelers ran 23 plays in the fourth quarter. Sixteen of them were runs. Eleven first downs in the fourth quarter.
“It’s like they remembered who they were for a second. It was Najee Harris, it was Jaylen Warren. Almost all of their rushing yardage for the game came in the fourth quarter.”
Pittsburgh really came alive in the fourth quarter offensively. They couldn’t be stopped. It might not have looked all that pretty during the fourth quarter as Harris and Warren slugged away at the Rams’ defensive front, but it had quite an impact and led to great success for the Steelers in the final 15 minutes.
As Lewis pointed out, the Steelers ran 23 plays in the fourth quarter. Three of those were kneel downs from quarterback Kenny Pickett. Therefore, out of 20 actual plays run from the line of scrimmage, 13 of them were runs. On those plays, the Steelers gained 57 yards on the ground and scored two touchdowns — a 13-yard run from Warren and a 3-yard run from Harris.
In the fourth quarter alone, the Steelers gained 4.38 yards per carry. Take away two QB sneaks from Pickett that moved the chains and gained just one yard each and the Steelers had 11 actual run plays with Harris and Warren and gained 55 yards, good for 5.0 yards per carry.
Pretty good numbers overall.
Hopefully it’s a sign of things to come. The Steelers were committed to the run game, stuck with what worked and gave Harris and Warren a healthy dose of work, leading to them imposing their will in the fourth quarter in the comeback win.
