Things were looking rather promising for the Pittsburgh Steelers entering their Week 12 Thursday Night Football matchup against the Cleveland Browns on the road. Now there are quite a few concerns for the Black and Gold following an ugly 24-19 loss to the Browns.
The loss dropped the Steelers to 8-3 on the season, which still has them atop the AFC North and with one of the best records in the AFC. Yet, despite that, there’s a feeling of existential dread with the Steelers moving forward as the schedule gets harder.
Much of that dread centers on the struggles of the offense in the last two weeks, which went seven quarters without a touchdown until coming to life in the fourth quarter against the Browns. It wasn’t enough, though, and red zone issues continue to mount.
Those concerns have NFL.com’s Judy Battista highlighting the Steelers’ offense as one of six units in the NFL that needs to “wake up” moving forward.
“The Steelers are 8-3, but for a team with grander aspirations than just a playoff appearance, their inability to get into the end zone is concerning. The Steelers entered Week 12 averaging just two offensive touchdowns per game, the fewest of any team with a winning record this season,” Battista writes. “Then they managed just one touchdown in the loss to the Cleveland Browns. A big part of the reason Mike Tomlin made the switch to Russell Wilson was a desire for more downfield passes and more explosion in the offense.
“Wilson’s moonballs are still things of beauty, George Pickens can catch anything, and the defense is special, but it probably isn’t sustainable to regularly beat top-tier teams like the Ravens with field goals alone.”
The struggles in the red zone are a real concern, without a doubt. But Battista shortchanged the Steelers’ performance against the Browns as Pittsburgh had two touchdowns in the game — a Jaylen Warren 3-yard run and a Calvin Austin III 23-yard pass from Russell Wilson.
Obviously, it wasn’t good enough as the Steelers lost the game.
But Pittsburgh has been playing a similar style of football all season, and in recent weeks when it was winning and on a five-game winning streak, the performance of the offense wasn’t a concern. Now, coming out of a blizzard game in which they had 368 yards of total offense and possessed the football for 35:02 of game clock, all of a sudden the offense is a mess.
The red-zone issues are a massive concern, without a doubt. It’s an area of the field that offensive coordinator Arthur Smith and quarterback Russell Wilson need to figure out. But having this overreaction coming out of last Thursday’s game seems shortsighted.
It was a division-rivalry matchup, the weather was atrocious, and it was a short week after a physical battle against the Baltimore Ravens. The Steelers weren’t going to run the table and never lose again.
You take the results of the game and throw them out. That doesn’t mean you don’t learn any lessons from it, but having some sort of stance one way or another post-Browns game seems a bit shortsighted and unnecessary.
Yes, the Steelers’ offense needs to get going in the red zone, but it’s not some poor unit that can’t do anything right like in recent years. This is a well-balanced team, and last Thursday night the defense didn’t do its part late, and the offense couldn’t finish drives.
You’ll have weeks like that. It sure would be nice though if the Steelers came out in Week 13 against the Cincinnati Bengals and answered some questions offensively.
