Outside of the scoreboard, you might have a bit of a difficult time coming up with a list of offensive statistics from the Pittsburgh Steelers’ last game that don’t look very good. On a play-for-play basis, it was quite possibly the best they have looked in years.
With one glaring exception: the red zone. The Steelers only went 1-for-4 in the red zone and on one trip failed to score altogether, though the officiating played a role in that. On their first trip inside the 20, it appeared WR Diontae Johnson scored, but the officials ruled it incomplete, and the Steelers did not challenge.
RB Jaylen Warren fumbled the ball on the very next play and the Cincinnati Bengals recovered, slamming the door shut on even a field goal opportunity. They finally broke through with a touchdown in the middle of the third quarter before settling for field goals on their next two red-zone possessions.
“Yeah, we’ve got to stop kicking ourselves in the foot when we get down in that area”, said TE Pat Freiermuth, via the team’s website. “I think we had a fumble and a penalty or something like that. We can’t settle for field goals. We’ve got to score points. That’s that next step”.
The issues on the first possession are, of course, easiest to explain. Johnson failed to maintain possession of the football as he was being tackled, though that should not have precluded it from being ruled a touchdown. Still, the ball coming out of his hands led it to becoming a discretion call by the officials, and it’s on Mike Tomlin for not challenging it.
And then Warren fumbled on the next play, on 2nd and 2 at the Bengals’ 15-yard line. It was a bad play by the back, but the offense wasn’t on the details there following the deflating ruling on the previous play. So, no points following a 10-play, 57-yard drive.
Pittsburgh did not make it back inside the 20 until the second half, but it did finally find the end zone, RB Najee Harris catching the left edge behind a lead block by TE Darnell Washington (which could have easily been called for a hold) from five yards out.
While they made it back into the red zone on the next series, they didn’t find the end zone. A pair of two-yard runs set up a 3rd and 6 on which QB Kenny Pickett and Johnson did not appear to be on the same page, leading to an incompletion, the Steelers settling for a field goal.
On the next trip, the Steelers were playing to close out the game, understanding that a field goal would make it a two-possession margin. Harris was stopped for a loss of one yard and then Warren was stopped for no gain. Pickett settled for a short pickup on 3rd and 11, connecting with Freiermuth for seven to finish at the Bengals’ 15.
“Hone in on the details down there”, Freiermuth said when asked what they need to do to convert those trips into the red zone into touchdowns more often. “Understand what we’re trying to accomplish”. It should be manageable enough.
