Gaining just 251 yards of total offense and scoring just 13 points in Sunday’s 13-6 win over the Denver Broncos on the road, it’s understandable if one looking from the outside in sees the offensive performance and wonders if the Steelers were being conservative for the second week in a row offensively under coordinator Arthur Smith.
That wasn’t the case, though.
The Steelers were rather aggressive against the Broncos, consistently pushing the football down the field in the passing game. But in the end, penalties killed the Steelers offensively, leading to the limited production from the unit.
For Steelers running back Najee Harris, he was rather frustrated after the game, even with the win, stating that the Steelers have to execute and need to stop making the mistakes that lead to penalties and put them in holes offensively.
“It’s tough for the running backs, but shit, we just have to execute on these passes … it’s the same shit. We just have to execute. We aren’t being conservative. We are just (expletive) ourselves,” Harris said to reporters, according to a tweet from Pat McAfee Show correspondent Mark Kaboly on Twitter. “We make a play and get a penalty that pushes us back and gets us off schedule. The plays you want to run you can’t run anymore because it is 2nd and 12.”
It’s easy to understand Harris’s frustrations. Throughout Sunday’s game against the Broncos, the Steelers had a number of big plays taken off the board due to offensive penalties, including a 51-yard strike from quarterback Justin Fields to wide receiver George Pickens, a touchdown pass from Fields to Pickens late in the first half, Harris converting a first down in the second half on the ground, and a Fields throw to Calvin Austin III on third down in the fourth quarter.
Executing on offense has been a big sticking point for Harris for the last few seasons, so that led to his “same shit” comment Sunday after the win.
Fortunately for Harris, it’s different this time. Right now, it’s just penalties that need cleaned up, rather than finding a way to execute plays that simply won’t work in the NFL. The Steelers have a competent offensive coordinator in Arthur Smith in the fold, and the plays are there.
The Steelers, to their credit, hit on them Sunday, completing the passes and seemingly moving the chains. The big men up front need to clean things up, though.
If they do that, the offense could really be cooking under Smith. We’ll see how the Steelers respond entering Week 3 from that aspect, because on Sunday in the Mile High City, the Steelers were beating themselves offensively, rather than the Broncos doing anything to really slow them down.
