It is no secret that the Pittsburgh Steelers are a run first team. The Steelers average 36 rushing attempts per game, good for second best in the NFL, and average 130.7 rushing yards per game, 12th best.
One of the reasons for Pittsburgh running the football so much is it helps them control the clock, take over games, and wear their opponent down. The Steelers have an average time of possession of 33:55, second best in the NFL. This has helped them wear opponents down, and like we saw last week against the Los Angeles Chargers, dominate in the fourth quarter.
Steelers LT Dan Moore Jr. spoke with WMBS’ George Von Benko and said that the team’s goal week in and week out is to wear their opponent down.
“That’s kind of our motto every week,” said Moore. “Even though it’s sometimes unsaid throughout the week just based off of game plans and certain things like that, other things that we wanna turn our attention to. We can’t lose the main focus, and that’s going in the stadiums and running the ball on our opponent.”
Last year, Pittsburgh had that goal of wearing teams down and running the football as well but it was not as successful as it has been this year. A big reason for that is quarterback play. QB Justin Fields is doing better than quarterbacks Kenny Pickett and Mitch Trubisky last season, and that has helped the Steelers sustain drives.
Although it sounds weird, having an effective passing game can open up the run game a bit. Being able to convert first downs on obvious passing situations helps get a new set of downs and gives more time for the running game to get a rhythm. The flipside is also true with the running game helping bring defenders down into the box to open up room in the secondary.
For example, last week against the Chargers the Steeler run game struggled early on with three and outs. However, as Fields and the offense settled in and led a few longer drives, the run game took off. Pittsburgh ran for 14 yards in the first half. They finished the game with 114 yards on the ground.
Pittsburgh’s goal every week is to establish the run and grind teams down. The good news this year is that even if the run doesn’t work at first, they can get it to work through sustaining drives thanks to a better and more efficient passing attack.
Tomorrow, Dan Moore and the Steelers will look to wear down the Indianapolis Colts and get payback from last year when the Colts wore down the Steelers in a dominating 30-13 Colts victory.
