Najee Harris was taking a lot of heat from the fan base and media over the last two weeks in which he rushed the ball 27 times for 61 yards. That 2.3 yards per carry made it look like he wasn’t capable of carrying the load in Arthur Smith’s offensive system. But he followed that up with arguably the best game of his career against the Las Vegas Raiders to flip the narrative on its head.
“Some Steelers fans say it’s not his best game ever, but I felt like that was the best performance I’ve ever seen from Najee Harris,” said Ross Tucker Monday via his Ross Tucker Football Podcast. “He had not one, not two, but three absolutely ridiculous runs. And to me, it’s like, it feels like this is the guy we kind of thought he always could be. He showed burst, he was running people over, he was finishing runs, he was running like a Steelers running back should run. That was awesome from Najee Harris.”
Harris had 14 carries for 106 rushing yards and a touchdown with another two receptions for 16 yards.
Harris has had games with more yards and more touchdowns before, but he has never been as efficient as he was on Sunday. His 7.57 yards per carry was by far the best of his career. The next closest was in 2021 against the Cleveland Browns when he averaged 6.71 yards on 28 carries.
Harris is normally known for running between the tackles, but his best run of the day was a 36-yard toss play to the outside. He showed some agility and balance evading tacklers near the line of scrimmage and then kicked it into high gear to pull away from tacklers as he streaked up the sideline. Below is the play by the NFL on X.
If you pair that play with his 15-yard run at the beginning of the second quarter, he showed all of the traits necessary to be an effective runner. On this play, he ran over several defenders for a run worthy of Kyle Brandt’s “Angry Runs” segment.
When asked after the game what caused the sudden turnaround in rushing success for the Steelers, Harris pointed to the effort of all 11 players on offense. He said it takes everybody doing the “dirty part” of their jobs like receivers blocking and running backs picking up the blitz for the offense to be successful.
