On the surface, 37 points, over 400 yards of offense, and a dominant second-half showing would be enough to placate most offensive coordinators. For Arthur Smith, he’s happy about the results but not satisfied with the process. Even on touchdowns, Smith thinks the offense can be even better.
“We get those chunk plays sometimes, we want to be aggressive,” Smith told reporters Thursday via a team-provided transcript. “You want to have that passion, but you get back in the huddle late and you’re at the line of scrimmage, you can’t operate, you can’t get to your checks or your run alerts, your cans, however you package it.
“That can put a lot of stress. That really kind of happened on Van [Jefferson’s] touchdown. It’s not his fault. We need to operate faster. The end result was great. A lot of times when you go back and look at it, you have to be sober-minded and objective.”
Jefferson’s touchdown was an “easy” score, the veteran wide receiver wide open along the right sideline, but as you’ll see below, Pittsburgh nearly failed to get the play off. They broke the huddle with just over 10 seconds left on the play clock and snapped right as the clock hit zero. Against a New York Jets defense capable of throwing chaotic looks on third downs, the Steelers didn’t have much time to adjust. They snapped and ran the play largely as called, though you’ll see Wilson sneak in one quick check right before the snap.
You can see Smith right before the score below, seemingly mouthing “Go, let’s go” with Pittsburgh late out of the huddle (headsets are turned off under 15 seconds so no message could’ve been relayed to Wilson here).
It’s worth mentioning this play came several snaps after RB Najee Harris’ 34-yard run. So any celebration there didn’t cause the team being late to the next play. But Smith is focusing on all the details, even on plays the offense “won.”
“What do we need to do better? You need to be a little cleaner there. End result was great. We got what we wanted, but we didn’t need to be rushing that moment,” he said.
It might seem nit-picky but it’s refreshing to hear. A coordinator not satisfied with “good enough” even though that snap qualifies. It reflects why the Steelers wanted an experienced and proven OC like Smith focused on the bigger picture beyond the scoreboard. It’s those kinds of details that will keep Pittsburgh’s offense ascending and at its best come the playoff stretch and hopeful postseason appearance.
