The Pittsburgh Steelers’ season is in a tailspin following back-to-back losses to 2-10 teams. The performance on the offensive side of the ball has been a big reason for the Steelers’ struggles this season. That has been magnified by the injury to QB Kenny Pickett suffered at the end of the first half against the Arizona Cardinals. With Pittsburgh’s playoff chances hanging in the balance, it is time for the offense to resolve some of its issues or it will spell a premature end to the Steelers’ season.
WR Diontae Johnson was asked during Tuesday’s post-practice media availability if the offense has a sense of urgency to turn things around.
“Yeah, but I mean, our focus is just go out there and make plays and just start fast,” Johnson said via a video of the press conference posted by Steelers Live on X. “All this starting fast or what can we do to change the offense? Like, it’s simple bro, just go practice, go play hard. There’s nothing crazy about the whole situation. Just go play and then your effort’s going to show.”
It is difficult to come to the conclusion that the offense’s problems are “simple” given the great lengths the Steelers have now gone in an effort to fix them. They made an unprecedented move for the organization in firing offensive coordinator Matt Canada midseason. To further complicate matters, just when it seemed the coordinator change was paying off, Pickett got injured.
Sustaining drives and finishing in the red zone are among the two biggest issues for the team to correct. The Steelers rank 31st in red zone scoring percentage, converting their chances into touchdowns just 42.9 percent of the time. They were already in the bottom half of the league in that stat in 2022 and have regressed further. The last three weeks, their touchdown percentage in the red zone has been a very low 33.3. As an example, the Steelers started with the ball in the red zone following LB Mykal Walker’s interception last week against the Patriots. They not only failed to score a touchdown but were stopped on fourth down and came away completely empty-handed.
“It’s not like we are trying to go out there and mess up on purpose,” Johnson said. “It’s football. We’re not the only team that’s having issues. Other teams around the league having issues. Yeah, we got our issues, but we going to fix ’em. And that’s that.”
The Steelers have a crucial game Saturday against the Indianapolis Colts. If they lose, the path to the playoffs will be extremely narrow and the team will be reliant on other outcomes around the league. The time to fix those issues is now.
