One cannot reasonably make the argument that the Pittsburgh Steelers have been a good running team so far this season. While they have topped 100 yards rushing in each of the past two games, it has either come inefficiently or to no end.
Nevertheless, they have had some success lately in fits and starts, yet they have tended to move away from it once they start getting into a bit of trouble. It’s a trend that C Mason Cole has noticed, as he mentioned after the game.
“There’s times when we’re running the ball really well, then one bad or negative run will scare us away from it”, Brian Batko of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette quotes him as saying, via Twitter. “We’re behind the chains, we’re trying to catch up, and you get in bad situations. We just have to be more consistent across the board”.
As goes without saying, there are some times more than others that are better suited to running the football. Depending on how far back you are on the scoreboard, you may not have enough time to try to work your way down on the field in small doses.
For most of the game until the fourth quarter, however, Pittsburgh never trailed by more than two possessions. One could argue that they had more opportunity to work in the run game than they did through the first 45 minutes. They still managed 25 attempts for 114 yards versus 32 drop backs, so the disparity was not vast.
Probably the standout example in this game would be the Steelers’ final possession of the third quarter. Najee Harris followed a 23-yard rush to open the drive with just a one-yard run, so they immediately passed on the next play. But then Jaylen Warren fumbled, QB Kenny Pickett recovering for a loss of eight. They passed on the next three plays, or tried to, including on the fourth and 1 on which Pickett was injured.
After that, Houston began to pull away, scoring touchdowns on its final two possessions. The next drive consisted of three straight passes by QB Mitch Trubisky followed by a punt. The final drive added some meaningless runs just to churn clock, Warren netting 15 yards of junk yards on three carries to put the team over 100 on the day and make his own numbers look a little better.
Suffice it to say that the Steelers are still not playing that bully ball they talked about all offseason. They told us to watch what they do more than what they say, letting it be known that they want to be a physical football team.
That hasn’t materialized yet. In fact, more often, they have been the team getting out-physicaled by their opponents. And the personnel isn’t changing. If they aren’t winning their man-on-man battles, I’m not sure what gives us cause to believe anything is going to change.
