Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin described his offensive game plan against the Cincinnati Bengals after his team’s 23-point victory as “chess, not checkers”. Much was made of their exploiting their tape from the previous matchup against the Bengals weeks ago against them, breaking their own tendencies.
Chiefly, they exploited the middle of the field to a degree they hadn’t been able to before. TE Pat Freiermuth was the chief beneficiary, having a career day with nine receptions on 11 targets for 120 yards. Even without a single target last week, he was credited as having a big impact on the passing game for how he forced the Bengals to defend him. And RB Najee Harris believes it all helped to open up the run game as well with QB Mason Rudolph’s more aggressive passing approach.
“It helped out a lot because at first they was playing a lot of one-high [safety]”, he said, via the team’s website. “Really, it just helped going into the next game of maybe the defense would play two-high, maybe they won’t be so run-heavy. It helps out a lot. I think that Mason did a really good job of just coming in and executing what he had to do. We’re all just happy about his performance”.
Rudolph averaged over nine air yards per target, which is the highest for a Steelers quarterback in a game this season who managed to throw for over 200 yards—in other words, to throw deep and be successful doing it.
Of course, his longest play—and the longest play of the NFL season—came on a short slant to WR George Pickens, who scored from 86 yards out on a catch-and-run affair. But he hit Pickens in stride later on a 66-yard touchdown, and also connected with the second-year receiver on a 44-yard completion.
While the running backs did not exactly take over, they had bouts of effectiveness. Harris finished the game with 78 rushing yards on 19 attempts and a touchdown with a long gain of 13. The sledding was less favorable for Jaylen Warren, who managed only 24 yards on eight attempts. WR Calvin Austin III scored from seven yards out on an end-around as well while Rudolph contributed a seven-yard scramble.
In total, the Steelers rushed for 113 yards on 30 attempts with two rushing touchdowns, averaging 3.8 yards per play with just a single gain of 10-plus yards. Yet compared to how they had been running the ball since their last game against the Bengals, it was a substantial improvement.
Harris did have six successful running plays out of 10 carries in the second half, with Warren having three successful runs out of four in the fourth quarter, so the run game grew more effective as the game wore on. At that point, the Steelers were more focused on closing out the game and draining the clock, having already gained a sizeable lead. But that’s just an example of the complementary football Tomlin is always preaching.
