The Pittsburgh Steelers will play their third game of the 2024 regular season on Sunday afternoon at home against the Los Angeles Chargers. They’ll enter that contest listed as a slight favorite. Below are five key things that I believe the Steelers will need to do in that home game on Sunday to come away with their third win of the 2024 season.
Don’t Get Grounded By The Two-Headed Monster – Regardless of who plays quarterback on Sunday for the Chargers, you can bet that the Los Angeles offense will attempt to run the football down the throat of the Steelers’ defense. After all, the Chargers have assembled a high-pedigree offensive line, and they have a two-headed monster in their backfield they can lean on in the duo of J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards.
Through two games, Dobbins and Edwards have combined to register a league-best 351 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 56 total carries. The two have also combined to have nine rushes of 10-plus yards this season.
Not only are Dobbins and Edwards a great tandem, but both have a history of playing well against the Steelers’ defense. In three previous games against the Steelers, Dobbins has registered 326 yards and a touchdown on 47 total rushes. As for Edwards, in his nine previous games against the Steelers, he has registered 418 yards and two touchdowns on 90 total carries.
Dobbins and Edwards are former members of the Baltimore Ravens, giving both experience preparing for and playing against a Steelers defense. If the Pittsburgh defense can limit the Los Angeles ground game to well under 100 yards on Sunday, accomplishing that task will go a long way toward helping produce another victory.
Edge Out The Los Angeles Edges – Sunday’s game in Pittsburgh between the Steelers and the Chargers will feature two defenses with two solid edge rushers. The Steelers will obviously have edge rushers T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith. In contrast, the Chargers will have their dynamic duo of Joey Bosa and Khalil Mack, who have combined to register 3.5 sacks in the first two games of the 2024 regular season. Watt and Highsmith, on the other hand, have combined to register 3 sacks in Pittsburgh’s first two games.
The Chargers will attempt to slow down Watt and Highsmith with their two starting offensive tackles, Rashawn Slater and rookie Joe Alt, both former first-round draft selections. Conversely, the Steelers will counter Bosa and Mack with tackles Dan Moore Jr. and likely Broderick Jones, as rookie Troy Fautanu will sit out due to a knee injury.
Both of these edge duos can quickly change the course of a game, and they might be the top two duos in the NFL right now. Whichever offensive tackle tandem can better limit the effectiveness of the opposing defenses’ edge tandem on Sunday afternoon in Pittsburgh is likely to wind up on the victorious side when the dust settles.
More On First & 10 – The Steelers offense has run 49 plays in first and 10 situations so far through their first two regular season games of 2024. Those plays have averaged just 4.3 yards, ranking them 27th overall in the NFL. Only 19 of those 49 plays have managed to result in gains of 4 or more yards and that has them ranked tied for next-to-last in the NFL entering Week 3. Five of those 49 first and 10 plays actually lost yardage, which is another concerning statistic.
While two games are clearly a small sample size, the Chargers defense has allowed an average of 6.0 yards on first and 10 plays after their first two games of the 2024 regular season. Only five other NFL teams have allowed a bigger average, with the Steelers shockingly being one of them.
On first and 10 running plays, the Chargers have allowed an average of 5.6 yards, which is the fourth-most in the NFL after two weeks of play. The Steelers will likely attempt to run quite often on first and 10 on Sunday, so perhaps that sort of attack can result in some success when it comes to that particular down and distance. It certainly needs to.
YAC IT UP – While Steelers WR George Pickens is doing everything he can to help the offensive passing game, as a team, the lack of yards after the catch on offense is a bit concerning entering Week 3. The Steelers have registered all of 105 yards after catches through two games played in 2024, ranking last in the NFL. Additionally, the Steelers enter Week 3 ranked 31st in the NFL in yards after catch average (3.50 yards) and last in total yards after contact after receptions (24 yards) and yards after contact per reception (0.80 yards).
Getting the football in the hands of the pass catchers while in space is a must moving forward. We must start seeing the offense’s yards-after-catch numbers improve significantly, especially if the unit continues to struggle to produce explosive plays of 20 yards or longer. While the Chargers’ defense has been good against the pass overall through their first two games, that unit is ranked right around the middle of the NFL in total yards after the catch allowed.
However, regarding yards after contact per reception, the Chargers defense enters Week 3 allowing 2.12 yards on average. YAC can’t be undersold, and the Steelers certainly need more of it starting on Sunday at Acrisure Stadium against the Chargers.
See More Red, Less Yellow – Through the first two weeks of the 2024 regular season, the Steelers have had 24 penalties called against them. Only the Cleveland Browns have more. If that’s not a shocking enough number, those penalties have resulted in 127 nullified offensive yards, a jaw-dropping amount. Officially, the Steelers have had nine offensive drives killed by penalties, and that’s obviously far too many in just two games played.
Mike Tomlin said the team was bringing in referees for all three of its practices this past week to help curb its penalty totals. Pittsburgh’s offense isn’t explosive, at least not yet, and thus, the unit shooting itself in the foot as it has in the first two games of the 2024 regular season can’t continue.
As for the Steeler’s red zone offense through two games, the unit has only entered it four times in total, with just one touchdown to show for it. The Steelers enter Week 3 tied 29th overall in the NFL in red zone percentage at 25. While the team’s defense has certainly held up their end of things through the first two games, it’s time for the offense to start putting the football in the end zone more. Especially when the unit gets inside the opponent’s 20-yard line. Merely scoring one touchdown on Sunday against the Chargers isn’t likely to be enough to secure a third win.
