With Najee Harris leading the way, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense produced six scores on 10 drives, which is a healthy ratio. What is not healthy or sustainable to produce wins is that not one touchdown made the list. It’s hard to score six times while producing under 20 points, but the Steelers managed to do that.
Thanks to six Chris Boswell field goals, they pulled off the win, but Harris knows the offense needs to do better. After a reporter asked about the Steelers’ need to turn field goals into touchdowns, he agreed. He said he had spent time at home after the game thinking about just that and credited the reporter’s question. If you have any familiarity with Harris, you know how uncharacteristic that is.
“The good thing is we were in the red zone twice. But we’ve got to find a way to stop beating ourselves up”, Harris said about the Steelers’ struggles finishing drives in the season opener, via the team’s website. “We’ve got to find a way to stop doing the false starts. We’ve got to find a way to convert on certain downs”. And he didn’t come close to stopping there.
“We’ve got to find a way to stay on schedule and not lose yards, even if the play’s not blocked the right way. Try to get no negative yards, make it a 2nd and 10 instead of 2nd and 15. We’ve got to try to execute the plays [better]”. Harris continued listing the Steelers offense’s shortcomings, including some interesting vagary.
“We’ve got to try to do certain things right so the play could be executed at the rate that we want it to be. We’re working on that. It is glaring, though, obviously, because this is the same thing probably last year that happened”.
Now in his fourth season, Najee Harris has often spoken his mind when he felt the Steelers were falling short. He has used the media to make his points in public, though he started doing that less last year. He also started to be more cryptic and less forthcoming, this being a possible example.
It sounded to me, though, like Harris felt the Steelers were still making some of the same mistakes that held them back last year. Even with a new quarterback and offensive coordinator, they are still getting in their own way. And if you noticed, all those things Harris mentioned describe the shortcomings of last year’s offense. Penalties killing drives, too many negative plays, failing on winnable possession downs, overall poor execution. Matt Canada isn’t here as a scapegoat anymore.
But the reality is that is the truth of most NFL offenses. A lot of offensive football today is ugly and sloppy, not to absolve the Steelers of anything. They certainly got in their own way a time or two too often on Sunday.
Even still, Najee Harris remains confident in the Steelers’ offense and of an imminent turnaround. “We know that we’re gonna score points”, he said. If they can convert just two field goals into touchdowns, they will be in business. And that is a more than reasonable expectation.
