For as much as the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense is struggling, former head coach Bill Cowher believes there’s one solution the team hasn’t leaned into enough. Appearing on the Pat McAfee Show Thursday, Cowher weighed in on the Steelers and how they can begin fixing things for the final three regular-season games.
“Get back to what Steelers football is about,” Cowher told the show. “If I was them right now, I would be putting whoever they wanna put out there [at quarterback]. But I [would have] Kenny Pickett under center. Put him under center. You have Najee Harris, who’s a downhill runner. He’s not a side, boxcar runner. [Jaylen] Warren, all the big runs, they’re downhill.”
According to the charting provided by our Tom Mead, Pickett has been under center 31.1 percent of the time this season. Like most NFL teams, the Steelers are a shotgun-based offense. But the pendulum has begun to swing the other way with the likes of the San Francisco 49ers and, as Cowher would mention, the Buffalo Bills going under center more often and focusing on the ground game.
Cowher’s assertion is also correct. Of the 10 runs Pittsburgh has of 20-plus yards this season, eight have come from under center, including their longest, RB Jaylen Warren’s 74-yard run against the Cleveland Browns earlier this year.
While the Steelers’ run game has had its moments this season, it’s offered no help over the last two games. Against the New England Patriots, Pittsburgh ran for just 82 yards and averaged under three yards per attempt. Production was just as meager in Saturday’s loss to the Indianapolis Colts, 74 yards on 24 carries.
Cowher’s best teams were ground-and-pound units. In 2005, Pittsburgh led the league in rushing attempts, finished fifth in yards, and fifth in rushing scores. Cowher said running under center also opens up the passing game.
“It also sets up the play-action. Everything else you want to do. You’ve got a young quarterback. And it that helps the offensive line,” he said. “There’s nothing that’s negative about going back there.”
Cowher decried the idea that playing under center, playing smashmouth football is too “old school,” saying quarterbacks have to earn the right to pass the football.
Though eras have changed and 2023 is more of a passing-driven league than ever before, the Steelers can’t win when they don’t run the ball effectively. That was true last year, their 7-2 finish jump-started by the running game, and it’s been true for most of 2023, the Steelers rushing for 150-plus yards in four-straight games and going 3-1 because of it.
If there’s a chance for Pittsburgh’s running game to get back on track, it’s this weekend. The Cincinnati Bengals have one of the NFL’s worst run defenses and lost run-stuffing defensive tackle D.J. Reader to a quad injury last weekend. In their Week 12 matchup earlier this year, the Steelers ran for 153 yards while the running backs averaged well over five yards per carry.
Hearing Cowher talk about getting Pittsburgh’s offense back to its roots is music to a Steelers fan’s soul. And it might be the solution they need to get out of this rut.
