The Steelers are now back at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, facing down a long regular season that looks a lot more promising given how things have gone leading up to it. Finishing just above .500 last year, they anticipate being able to compete with any team in the league this season with second-year QB Kenny Pickett leading the way.
They’ve done a great deal to address what they identified as their shortcomings during the offseason, which included addressing the offensive and defensive lines as well as the secondary and the inside linebacker room, which is nearly entirely different from last year. The results have been positive so far.
Even well into the regular season and beyond, there are going to be plenty of questions that need answered. When will the core rookies get to play, or even start? Is the depth sufficient where they upgraded? Can they stand toe-to-toe with the Bengals and the other top teams in the league? We’ll try to frame the conversation in relevant ways as long as you stick with us throughout the season, as we have for many years.
Question: Can the offense get the ground game running again?
After one of their best stretches of running the ball in many years, the Steelers’ success on the ground came to a sudden halt. They mustered just 82 yards on the ground against the New England Patriots, and the true nuts and bolts of the operation show a much worse production.
30 of those yards came from QB Mitch Trubisky scrambling, for example. WR Calvin Austin III added another 12 on an end-around. That’s literally more than half of their yardage. The other 40 took Najee Harris (12 for 29) and Jaylen Warren (7 for 11) 19 combined carries, barely two yards per attempt.
Interim offensive coordinator Eddie Faulkner’s explanation for this poor showing was rather unconvincing, citing failures on possession downs and not enough opportunities. But your starting running backs still ran the ball 19 times with almost nothing to show for it. Neither of them rushed for a single first down. They did combine for seven successful runs out of 19. That’s not catastrophically bad, but it’s not even close to good, either. And both of them topped out for a long gain of seven yards.
Does the brunt of the blame fall on the ball carriers? No, of course not. The quality of blocking from the offensive line, the tight ends, and the wide receivers really took a concerning step back, and the difference is the running backs simply didn’t create as many players on their own as they had been doing.
Credit also goes to a stout New England Patriots defensive front that, if nothing else, knows how to play with great discipline. Those guys may not be household names to most people, but they know how to play as a unit with good communication. They may be an awful team this year, but their run defense has never been questioned.
