Russell Wilson has given the Pittsburgh Steelers a little extra juice on offense, but they haven’t been perfect. Their biggest struggle with Wilson starting has been in the red zone. In the last two games, the Steelers are 5-for-10 on scoring touchdowns in the red zone. That number isn’t awful, but there are some possessions that skew the number. Van Jefferson knows that the offense needs to start finishing better.
“Russ [Wilson’s] doing a great job coming in,” Jefferson said Thursday on The Drive on Steelers Nation Radio. “He’s spreading the ball around, getting it downfield, so it’s something that we’re definitely gonna need down the road. In the red zone, that’s our Achilles heel right now. We gotta kind of work on that, and we love [Chris Boswell], but obviously we want to get some touchdowns, too.”
If the Steelers offense is saying it themselves, then it’s probably true. They crumble in the red zone. Looking at the context of some of their red zone trips helps clear up this picture.
Against the New York Jets, the Steelers scored four touchdowns on six trips into the red zone. That’s a good margin, but consider that their first touchdown didn’t come until near the end of the first half, right after their defense intercepted Aaron Rodgers. That gave them the ball around the middle of the field, and even then, they needed a big pass interference call to get near the end zone.
They proceeded to kick a field goal on their following trip. After that though, their defense recorded another interception, this time giving them the ball on the Jets’ one-yard line. It’s not easy to score a touchdown there, but they literally couldn’t have been given the ball any closer to the endzone.
Their last two touchdowns were a little better. Although the last one came in garbage time with the game basically over, the one before that capped off a fantastic drive to seal the game.
The game against the New York Giants was much uglier. The Steelers didn’t score a touchdown on any of their four red zone trips. The lone touchdown the offense scored came from the 29-yard line.
It hurts even more when you look where they were forced to kick field goals from. They were at the Giant’s nine-yard line twice, as well as the seven-yard line and 13-yard line. They were basically knocking on the door, but they couldn’t break through.
Some of the blame can be placed on penalties, poor luck, and bad execution. George Pickens has more touchdowns called back than he does actual touchdowns this year. The offensive line has also had a tough time getting any push at times. Really, they’ve been their own worst enemy.
Part of what made Justin Fields so appealing as the starter was his rushing ability in the red zone. Perhaps the Steelers can use him in special packages to give their offense the spark it needs near the goal line.
New receiver Mike Williams should help fix this problem as well. It’s not like these issues aren’t fixable. The Steelers have shown flashes of greatness in the red zone. This week against the Washington Commanders, we’ll see if they have any more luck finishing drives. Against that offense, the Steelers will need all the points they can get.
