There’s the kind way to say something, and there’s being brutally honest.
Plenty of sports media personalities are paid to give their unfiltered, brutally honest assessments on player and team performance. In the case of the Pittsburgh Steelers, their offense has been put on blast since the regular season began, taking heat for lack of execution on the field as well as the poor play calling by OC Matt Canada from numerous media personalities including Stephen A. Smith, Ryan Clark, and Colin Cowherd. You can add Scott Ferrall to the ever-growing list. He took time to torch the Steelers’ offense on his latest edition of Ferrall Coast To Coast, criticizing Pittsburgh for having a lack of production outside of WR George Pickens.
“Try to get better at everything because they suck so bad offensively,” Ferrall said via video from his Twitter page. “They’re so anemic. Their rushing attack is ass. They’ve had injuries obviously, [Diontae] Johnson, [Pat] Freiermuth. And then the only guy that’s been doing anything is [George] Pickens. Pickett to Pickens is their only is their only option.”
The comments are rather rude from Ferrall, but there’s a lot of truth with them. Pittsburgh’s offense has been the definition of anemic to start the season outside of some explosive pass plays to Pickens and WR Calvin Austin III. The Steelers have failed to generate many sustained offensive drives into enemy territory where the team actually finishes in the end zone for a touchdown. The offense has yet to score a rushing touchdown this season as RBs Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren have each shown flashes of impressive play but haven’t been able to sustain it for an entire football game.
Pittsburgh ranks 28th in the league in rushing and 27th in passing, ranking third worst in the NFL with 15.8 points per game. Consider that the defense accounted for two of those touchdowns in Pittsburgh’s Week Two win against the Cleveland Browns, the offense arguably has been even more impotent than the stats would suggest.
Ferrall did mention that Pickens has been the lone bright spot for Pittsburgh. Getting off to a strong start in his sophomore season, Pickens has been the team’s big-play threat down the field while also making some plays over the middle with Diontae Johnson out. Pittsburgh’s offense will be missing Freiermuth for a little while longer as he suffered a setback with his hamstring injury, but getting Johnson back in the lineup should take some of the pressure off Pickens in coverage, opening things up for both receivers.
Pittsburgh should be in position to generate some positivity offensively coming off the bye week, having had time to make adjustments and get guys back healthy. The Rams will present a strong test as they do a great job pressuring the quarterback, but it’s time for the Steelers to stop saying that things need to change and have those words yield results Sunday afternoon in SoFi Stadium.
