For the first time in more than two years, the Pittsburgh Steelers ran an offensive game plan and called plays without the aid of offensive coordinator Matt Canada. The former employee was dismissed last week with running backs coach Eddie Faulkner and quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan taking over his duties.
And they just so happened to have produced their first 400-yard game in almost four seasons, purely by coincidence of course. Yet they didn’t do it by reinventing the wheel. They just steered the vehicle more efficiently than before, according to the Cincinnati Bengals.
“Pretty much what we’ve seen on film during the week, that’s exactly what they ran”, said DL Zach Carter about what the Steelers showed in yesterday’s game, via transcript provided by the team’s media department. “They’re not a team that switches up the offense. They have their plays like their runs and they stick to them”.
Not that this should be in any way surprising, since we’ve been told for the past several days that not much would change. And that story didn’t change after the game, either. Even WR Diontae Johnson acknowledged from the transcripts that “There’s nothing different” in what they were running.
Yes, they targeted the middle of the field more, and they might have taken a couple more deep shots on the outside, but that was partly dictated by game circumstances and eligible availability. Having TE Pat Freiermuth back and healthy helped them open up the middle of the field in a way they had been unable to all year.
“They were trying to find the seam throughout the game, especially with their tight end”, Carter said, noting that Freiermuth “was in the middle of the field, so I did see that”. He had a career-high 120 receiving yards on nine receptions.
Johnson and WR George Pickens also contributed another 50-plus yards apiece, with each of them recording long gains of 39-plus yards. And part of that was just dictated by what the defense was making available at the time.
It’s hard to say from just one game how much has really changed wholesale and what was just the specifics of the day. Arguably the most significant difference was the performance of QB Kenny Pickett, who did a better job of getting through his reads and taking what was given.
The continued quality performance of the run game only helped the cause, allowing for a more balanced play selection, and thus a less predictable one. There was always the potential for a competent offense in what they already had. It was just a matter of getting it out.
