To say that the Pittsburgh Steelers offense in its current form leaves a lot to be desired would be an understatement. Calling that an understatement may even itself be an understatement. There are systemic problems that simply cannot be fixed in-season. But their failure to capitalize on the opportunities that they do get only exacerbates the problem.
Head coach Mike Tomlin knows that his players aren’t making enough of the plays that there are to make. Just about every team will go through that—just think of the missed opportunities for the Baltimore Ravens in their loss to the Steelers—but he knows they need to do more than just have chances. They need to capitalize on them, consistently.
“We don’t seek comfort in that. We’ve got to land those planes, if you will”, he told Bob Pompeani on the Mike Tomlin Show. “Very early in the game we had [WR Diontae Johnson] running down the middle of the field. I think the next third down we had [WR George Pickens] on a corner route, big-play opportunities that we weren’t able to finish”.
The very first play of the game was a key missed opportunity when Johnson was unable to corral a deep pass over the middle for a big gain. While the pass might have been slightly high and they were playing in wet conditions, it’s a play that needs to be made. That was only the beginning of the missed opportunities.
“That’s kind of been us”, Tomlin said, basically calling their failure to execute a part of their identity up to this point. “I thought our red-zone opportunity, we had Diontae in the end zone, but he slipped down, is another example of point-related things or possession-related things that could change the complexion of things. We’re close, but close is not good enough. Obviously, we’ve got to continue to work and finish those plays with a higher degree of consistency”.
The words sound good coming out of his mouth. They read well off the screen. But what good does that do if the plays still aren’t being made? We’ve been humming this tune all season and the positive indications of things actually getting sustainably better have been few and far between.
Notice that we haven’t even talked about the structural and schematic limitations that are holding back the offense. All of those things reduce the number of quality opportunities that even present themselves for significant plays.
All that does is magnify how damaging it is when they don’t capitalize. You may have noticed a theme in which this offense is virtually incapable of overcoming any hiccup. You get a penalty on a drive that sets you back, you can almost guarantee a punt will be coming. Miss a big catch on first down? Expect a third and long that will probably be a screen to RB Jaylen Warren for two yards shy of the sticks. Rinse, repeat, and retch.
