Many different cultures have sayings and expressions about the danger of a cornered animal. Backed up with nowhere to go, the only option he has available to him is to fight his way out, and so he inevitably does.
That appears to be the mindset of the Pittsburgh Steelers this past week. Still reeling from a fresh three-game losing streak that prompted a change at quarterback—backup quarterback, more particularly—they looked different.
They looked aggressive, in more compelling ways than they managed under Mitch Trubisky, whose aggression was often simply uncalculated risk-taking, or so it seemed. Mason Rudolph threw a smarter deep ball—and they needed him to.
“We were at a point and time where we had nothing to lose”, Steelers C Mason Cole said yesterday, via Jeff Hathhorn of 93.7 The Fan. “We were taking these shots. Mason with the 50-50 shots. We were challenged to take shots and be aggressive. We had done it before, but for whatever reason, we got out of that rhythm”.
Rudolph threw deep, 20-plus air yards, on nearly a fifth of his pass attempts. He only completed two of five such attempts, but they counted for 44 and 66 yards, respectively, the latter a touchdown. He also threw an 86-yard touchdown pass, but of course, that wasn’t about quarterback aggressiveness since that was off of a slant with a catch and run.
He was also successful in the intermediate areas of the field, completing four of seven such pass attempts thrown 10 to 19 yards beyond the line of scrimmage. That did include the 86-yard slant route that Pickens took to the house.
With just three plays on the day accounting for nearly 200 yards, about half of the total offensive output, the Steelers finally managed to capitalize on the explosive plays. All of them were passing plays from Rudolph to Pickens, of which two were on deep pass attempts and one intermediate.
But as head coach Mike Tomlin would say, it’s about complementary football. Even on the 86-yard touchdown on the second play of the game, it was set up by an effective first-down run. Simply getting decent yardage on first down had been hard enough for them for much of the year.
“We ran the ball well when we needed to, and when you do that, you are balanced, and you can take shots like that”, Cole argued, explaining how a more effective running game was also good business for the long ball.
Of course, you ultimately still need a quarterback who can get the ball down the field while not taking undue risks, as well as receivers who can get down the field and make plays, in the air if necessary. At least on their best days, the Steelers do have it, but we haven’t seen nearly enough of their best lately.
