The Pittsburgh Steelers are off to a hot start at 2-0. However, their offense has been anything but hot in those two wins. New offensive coordinator Arthur Smith’s offense has only generated one touchdown, a 5-yard pass from QB Justin Fields to TE Darnell Washington. Otherwise, it’s been K Chris Boswell who is putting points on the board.
So what’s going on? Why is Smith’s new offense putting up numbers that are reminiscent of former OC Matt Canada’s offense? Has Smith forgotten how to engineer touchdown drives? Or are the Steelers being intentionally conservative under head coach Mike Tomlin?
“I still think Mike Tomlin is pulling the strings behind Arthur Smith,” said Ray Fittipaldo on Monday’s episode of the North Shore Drive Podcast. “I just think, I cannot imagine that Arthur Smith wants to be this conservative. But, again, they’re doing things that they need to do to win these specific football games. But, as I said earlier, I think that’s about to change with the Chargers coming to town.”
The Steelers are averaging 15.5 points per game. Boswell has kicked eight field goals, six of them for all the points against the Atlanta Falcons in Week 1. That’s a far cry from Smith’s top-10 scoring offenses as the coordinator with the Tennessee Titans.
So has Smith simply forgotten how to coach offenses? Well, we know that Smith loves to utilize tight ends. So what about TE Pat Freiermuth? The Steelers signed him to a contract extension right before the start of the season. How is Smith using him?
Freiermuth has only been targeted eight times through two games. That may be second on the team, but that’s not many targets at all. Also, he’s only being targeted 4.3 yards past the line of scrimmage. The offense isn’t using him aggressively. Thankfully, he’s averaging 4.0 yards after the catch per reception, so he’s still averaging 8.3 yards per reception.
This simply hasn’t been the offense we thought we were going to see under Smith. Why is that? Is it because the Steelers are being more conservative with Fields at quarterback rather than Russell Wilson? Is the team simply doing what is necessary to win games? Does Smith want to be less aggressive than he was in Tennessee? Or is it Tomlin preaching a conservative offense because he’s got an elite defense?
Fittipaldo seems to think it’s Tomlin. Now, the Steelers have had high-quality offenses during Tomlin’s tenure as head coach. Most fans would love to have an offense even close to the heyday of QB Ben Roethlisberger, WR Antonio Brown and RB Le’Veon Bell out there in 2024.
But that just doesn’t seem to be Tomlin’s style. Tomlin wants his defense to be the star of the show and dominate teams. So he wants an offense that makes it easier. One that controls possession and doesn’t turn the football over.
And so far, that’s exactly what the Steelers are doing. They have committed no turnovers while forcing five. They average 3:14 minutes and over six plays per offensive possession. The time of possession and plays per drive are actually both top-five numbers in the league per Pro Football Reference. Heck, they’ve scored on 42.9 percent of their drives. That’s fourth-best in the NFL. It’s simply that they are only averaging 1.48 points per drive which ranks 19th in the league.
The Steelers need to end more drives in the end zone, not just in field goal range. 15.5 points per game isn’t going to cut it against teams like the Kansas City Chiefs later in the season. So is Tomlin the one keeping things tight in Pittsburgh?
One factor that could be playing a role in this is the penalties. The Steelers have had multiple big plays and even touchdowns wiped out by penalties. If the Steelers get that under control, that could be a big boost for the offense.
But if Tomlin is holding Smith and the offense back, he’s going to need to unwrap Smith’s full offense like a Christmas present in order for the Steelers to have a shot against the Chiefs on Christmas Day. And the Steelers can’t afford to wait that long with the Los Angeles Chargers coming to town on Sunday.
The Chargers have scored 48 points, the 11th-most in the league. They have the No. 1 defense in terms of points allowed (13 total). It’s going to be a big task for Smith and company for the Steelers’ home opener.
So it will be very interesting to see how aggressive the Steelers are on offense in Acrisure Stadium. Will Mike Tomlin continue to keep things conservative to prevent mistakes? Or will Arthur Smith have the full playbook at his disposal and the ability to attack as he sees fit?
