Aside from the inability to score points consistently to match the modern-day NFL and not getting good enough quarterback play in recent weeks, there’s been one key area the Pittsburgh Steelers have struggled in recently that has been a major detriment to the offense.
It’s a rather simple one, too: pre-snap alignments.
In recent weeks, the Steelers have been hit with a number of pre-snap alignment penalties, putting themselves behind the chains, making things all the more difficult for an offense that has a hard enough time moving the football.
For interim offensive coordinator Eddie Faulkner, the pre-snap alignment penalties are frustrating, but the Steelers aren’t making any excuses regarding those struggles.
“We constantly continue to emphasize it. I think last week there was one that was maybe a misalignment. It was kind of gray area, but obviously not making any excuses for it,” Faulkner said to reporters Wednesday, according to audio provided by the team. “The guys gotta line up the way that we call the formations and execute.”
That alignment issues persist at this point in the season is rather discouraging, especially in a system that many consider rather simple and bland. The formations aren’t all that creative or hard to get into, yet the Steelers continue to struggle to line up properly and avoid silly flags.
It’s basic football stuff that is put in doing the install process in the offseason. The fact that it continues to occur at this point in the season, especially in the third season of the same offensive scheme, has to be discouraging for not only the players, but coaches, too. Faulkner isn’t making an excuse for it, but if they continue to beat their heads against the wall regarding this situation and aren’t seeing the results, what happens next?
We haven’t gotten to that point, yet, but for Faulker, the Steelers have to clean it up, plain and simple.
“It’s frustrating at any point in the season, and so we just gotta clean that up. We’re a professional outfit,” Faulkner added.
They may be a professional outfit in title, but they certainly haven’t looked like one throughout the season, especially with some of the frustrating pre-snap penalties and the struggles from a production standpoint.
We’ll see if it ever gets cleaned up. There are four weeks left in the regular season. If the Steelers can at least clean up the self-inflicted mistakes, they can stay out of their own way offensively. That’s at least a start.
