The Pittsburgh Steelers offense has struggled to get going early during each of the last two games, and Pittsburgh now has suffered back-to-back losses after falling 20-17 to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday Night. Pittsburgh’s slow start included some conservative play-calling, particularly on the team’s opening drive. ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith is putting some blame on offensive coordinator Arthur Smith for the team’s struggles on offense.
“Arthur Smith needs to do a better job. Arthur Smith needs to do a better job calling plays. We made so much noise about this man coming over as the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons now that he just got the offense to focus on, the Steelers offense was supposed to be much better,” Smith said on First Take Monday morning.
Stephen A. added that Justin Fields “hasn’t been awful” and that the Steelers might just need additional weapons or a better run game, but he ultimately thinks the Steelers need to get George Pickens the ball more.
Pickens only played 34 of 57 possible snaps on Sunday, which was bizarre given that he’s their WR1. He does need to be more involved in the offense, and that can only happen if he’s actually on the field. Stephen A. absolved Justin Fields of a lot of the blame, and basically said the Steelers have to “get the quarterback some help.” He’s not wrong that the weapons aren’t up to par right now.
Najee Harris led the Steelers with 35 receiving yards on the night, while Pickens and Van Jefferson each had 3 receptions for 26 yards. It’s not good enough, especially out of Pickens, who had 7 targets and a key drop on third down on a ball he really should’ve caught.
The play-calling early was a problem, though, and Stephen A. is right to criticize Arthur Smith a little bit. Yes, Smith has been an upgrade over what the Steelers had at offensive coordinator, and yes, generally the offense has been better. But the play-calling has simply been too conservative at times, and back-to-back run plays on 2nd and 10 and 3rd and 8 in Dallas territory on the opening drive are the perfect example. The Steelers played for the tie and the field goal, and if they had gotten aggressive and maybe scored a touchdown instead of settling, then they could’ve won.
I understand wanting to run the ball and wear out defenses, and it worked for the Steelers the first three weeks of the season. But the Steelers averaged just 3.5 yards per carry last night and weren’t staying on schedule as well as they did earlier in the season. At some point, if something isn’t working, in-game adjustments should be made.
We’ll see where this team and this offense goes from here with a big week looming due to the impending return of QB Russell Wilson, but things have to change in some capacity before it goes from bad to worse offensively.
