Right from the start Sunday against the Green Bay Packers at Acrisure Stadium, the Pittsburgh Steelers dominated on the ground.
There was good push up front, lanes were massive, and the Steelers had a field day in the run game, churning out 205 yards and two touchdowns, averaging 5.7 yards per carry on the way to a hard-fought 23-19 win over the Packers to move to 6-3 on the season.
The showing was rather impressive, but for rookie right tackle Broderick Jones it should be the standard moving forward, that being 200-plus rushing yards per game.
“I just know with the group we got up front and the running backs we have behind us, there is no way we shouldn’t be able to get 200-plus every game,” Jones said to reporters, according to a tweet from 93.7 The Fan.
Jones’ comments come just a few days after he raised some eyebrows during a session with the media after practice earlier in the week, stating that 200-plus rushing yards is the expectation for him every game, considering that’s largely what he was part of at Georgia over the last few seasons.
Though this is the NFL, not college football, that’s Jones’ expectation. He wasn’t going to be happy until Pittsburgh did that.
Pretty remarkable they did that just a few days later, continuing to show just how impactful Jones has been over the last few weeks since being inserted into the starting lineup on a short week against the Tennessee Titans and at an unfamiliar position overall.
Wouldn’t you know it, the Steelers had their first 200-yard rushing game since they ran for 217 yards in Week 10 last season in a 20-10 win over the New Orleans Saints, and it occurred on a day in which second-year running back Jaylen Warren eclipsed the 100-yard mark for the first time in his career, and third-year running back Najee Harris had a season-best day as well.
Sunday’s showing on the ground against the Packers could be a sign of things to come for the Steelers. Will they rush for more than 200 yards a game down the stretch? That seems rather unlikely, but against the Packers the Steelers took a serious step toward consistency in the run game, getting back to how they played down the stretch in 2022, winning seven of nine games to finish 9-8 on the year.
The Steelers are in a different situation this season, sitting at 6-3, but they played the exact style of football they want to on Sunday. Run the football, control the clock, don’t make the silly mistakes and win a low-scoring game. For better or worse, that’s Steelers football right now.
It seems to be working.
