Whether you’re a casual fan or a former Super Bowl-winning quarterback, those who watch the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense can draw the same conclusion. The Steelers don’t score enough points. Their method of winning is great defense followed by just enough offense, making plays late in games to win 17-14, not 34-31. And when the offense falls behind, it’s hard to catch up.
That’s exactly what happened last Thursday night when the Steelers gave up 21 points by halfway through the second quarter en route to a 21-18 loss to the New England Patriots. QB Mitchell Trubisky did his best to rally the offense and threw one touchdown late in the first half and ran for another score early in the fourth to bring the Steelers within three. Yet he could not finish the comeback.
When the aforementioned former Super Bowl-winning quarterback Ben Roethlisberger broke down his thoughts on the game on Monday’s episode of Footbahlin With Ben Roethlisberger, he struggled to pinpoint the reason why the Steelers offense cannot come from behind.
“Our offense is not good enough to get out of a hole like that,” Roethlisberger said. “We almost did, but just not quite there… What’s our issue? I don’t know the issue, but it feels like it’s a bigger thing than just one specific thing. I don’t know that I can point to one thing and be like, ‘Here it is.’ Because if you can say here it is, you can fix this thing. In watching it, this is the first game we couldn’t run the ball real well, and that’s partly because of them. But I just don’t know that we’re making the big plays that we need to make.”
The Steelers are tied for the sixth-fewest passing plays that cover 20 or more yards with the Denver Broncos and the New York Giants at 31. That’s 30 less than the the Houston Texans and the San Francisco 49ers, who are tied atop the league. The Steelers are much more explosive in the run game compared to their peers with the fifth-most runs covering 20+ yards at 11, only four less than the three teams at the top in the Baltimore Ravens, the Arizona Cardinals, and the Miami Dolphins.
There’s no secret that the passing game is what’s holding the Steelers back. They cannot generate big plays through the air and are tied for the sixth-fewest yards per passing attempt at 6.2 with the Giants. For comparison’s sake, the 49ers lead the league at 9.8 yards per attempt. The Steelers are also tied for the fewest passing touchdowns with the New York Jets at nine.
Is this a talent issue, a philosophical issue, or a combination? Roethlisberger believes it’s a bigger issue, and it certainly seems like that. The Steelers aren’t getting high-quality play from whoever is under center, but it appears that the team isn’t asking the quarterback to be aggressive, either. The scoreboard certainly indicates that the offense is failing at its primary objective, scoring points. They are well below the league average for points per game, and it’s not getting better.
It’s going to take the organization addressing the quarterback position as well as pushing the offensive scheme in the right direction to fix the offense.
You can watch the rest of Footbahlin With Ben Roethlisberger below.
