Another game, another poor showing for the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense. This time, it resulted in a loss, a fate they have managed to avoid so far this year more often than not, but when you play this poorly, it’s hard to keep making excuses.
Just 10 points on the day, and even if you spot them the extra field goal they were robbed of because of an absurd offside penalty, we’re still talking about a pitiful offensive output. Even the man who was egregiously flagged for that offside penalty that negated a 55-yard field goal understands that.
“Offensively, we just kind of suck right now”, G Isaac Seumalo put it bluntly after the game, according to Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. And who would argue with him? All you have to do is look at the numbers.
The Steelers put up just 261 total yards of offense on the day, going 3-for-12 on third down, 0-for-2 on fourth down, and 0-for-1 in the red zone. They averaged only 4.1 yards per play, netting 70 rushing yards—much of which came on quarterback scrambles—and 191 passing yards, averaging just 4.2 yards per pass attempt between their two quarterbacks.
Before exiting the game with a rib injury, QB Kenny Pickett completed 10-of-16 passes for just 73 yards. The offense went three and out on each of its first four possessions before finally showing an ounce of life in the final 10 minutes of the first half. It was little better in the second half, primarily because of a single 75-yard touchdown drive. They picked up four of their seven meaningful first downs in the second half on that one possession prior to their final series with under two minutes to play, down two scores, which ended in an interception.
The Steelers could have gone into halftime down just 9-6 instead of 9-3 had the officials not erroneously flagged Seumalo for being offside on a 55-yard field goal attempt. Chris Boswell could not connect from 61 yards after making the first attempt. But Seumalo knows that doesn’t excuse their performance.
“It’s far, far from the reason the game was not won”, he said about the outcome of the game and about the state of the offense, via 93.7 The Fan. “It’s very, very minor to me in terms of the refs stuff. There’s much more prudent and important stuff offensively that we need to look at”.
Like, for example, how and why the offensive kind of sucks right now, as he put it. And you can write out a whole grocery list of reasons for that. When you’re consistently putting up under 300 yards and under 20 points per game, you have serious problems—the plural here being crucial. Because this unit has no easy fix.
