Last month, Pittsburgh Steelers running back Najee Harris stated that the identity of the offense, which was struggling to find itself, was running the football.
Down the stretch this season for the Steelers, that has certainly been the case. It was the main point of emphasis on Sunday in Week 17 against the Seattle Seahawks, too. The run game led the way for the Steelers as Pittsburgh punished the Seahawks on the ground in a 30-23 win, improving to 9-7 on the season.
The Steelers ran for 202 yards and three touchdowns and racked up 468 yards of total offense on the day, the most complete offensive showing the Steelers have had in quite some time.
For Harris, who spoke to reporters after the win, the Steelers’ offense is doing a good job right now of “knowing what we’re doing” and executing the game plan put together by interim offensive coordinator Eddie Faulkner and interim play-caller Mike Sullivan.
“I think that we’re doing a good job right now of knowing what we’re doing. Not every game is gonna look like this,” Harris stated to reporters, according to video via Steelers.com. “And I know the past game that I said that we looked good one week and another week, you guys might ask, ‘Well, what’s wrong with it?’ Well, it’s just football. Like, not every time is gonna be amazing and great plays and great performances. But if we just stick together like we did and really just believe and execute the game plan, I think that things like this will show up.
“So really just a good job by the o-line and the receivers and coach Sully [Mike Sullivan] and coach Faulk [Eddie Faulkner] of just doing what they have to do and establishing the run, and really executing the game plan that they provided.”
It’s not always going to be pretty like it was in Seattle for the Steelers’ offense. But when the team can execute the way that it did throughout Sunday’s 30-23 win, especially in the run game, big days are going to happen for the Steelers.
When the offensive line can come out and control the line of scrimmage, take over the game and really establish themselves physically, everything comes together for the Steelers’ offense. With a physical, consistent run game, things open up in the passing game downfield, especially off play-action.
Things opening up in the passing game helps out the offensive line in pass protection, too, as teams will start to drop more defenders into coverage to try and combat the passing game, leaving less pass rushers to deal with as well.
It all goes hand in hand, as Harris stated. The Steelers, at least in the last two weeks, are doing a great job of executing the game plan, believing in said plan, and really understanding their assignments on a snap-by-snap basis. Sounds simple for an NFL player, but it goes a long, long way in today’s NFL.
We’re seeing that more and more consistently with the Steelers these last two weeks.
