The one player the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense couldn’t afford to miss is on the sidelines during the team’s most crucial stretch of the season. Wide receiver George Pickens has sat out the last two games with a hamstring injury. With its tendency the linger and a condensed schedule, he could miss his third and be in street clothes for a critical AFC North showdown Saturday against the Baltimore Ravens. Former quarterback Charlie Batch weighed in on how to overcome missing the passing game’s top weapon Tuesday morning after 102.5 DVE host Randy Baumann made the point that losing Pickens is “Omar’s worst nightmare come true,” referring to GM Omar Khan and the roster he’s put together.
“That was the nervous part for me coming into the game,” Batch responded after being asked about Khan and the team’s dilemma. “Because you [have] George Pickens’ 850 yards on a season, but the rest of the receiver group as a whole don’t even have 850 yards. So when you look at it, there’s no threat. So you knew [the Eagles] were gonna challenge him in the pass game, get up in their faces, and obviously you see the result with Russell Wilson with only 128 yards to total of offense or passing offense.”
Aside from WR Calvin Austin III making a couple of plays, including a strong snag on a second-half flea flicker, the Steelers’ receivers did little. Ben Skowronek had just one reception though his catch provided Pittsburgh’s initial first down of the game. Van Jefferson had one catch for 0 yards. Scotty Miller didn’t have a reception and Mike Williams’ lone catch came up well short of the sticks on 3rd-and-forever.
In two games without Pickens, Wilson has been held to under 160 passing yards. The Steelers overcame that to beat the underachieving Cleveland Browns, but the same model doesn’t work well against contending teams like the Philadelphia Eagles.
Against the Ravens, Batch thinks the Steelers have to get back to basics.
“They’re gonna be probably a lot of play-actions that are gonna try to get that running game going early,” he said.
Pittsburgh had no plan and no success on the ground against Philadelphia, running a variation of its toss game on seven of the combined 12 carries among the team’s three running backs. None of them had success. Without Pickens or a healthy running game that gets the offense going, beating the Ravens will be impossible.
“Somebody is gonna have to make a play without a gadget play,” Batch said. “You [had a] great 40-yard catch by Calvin Austin. But they have to get within rhythm. Doing so, you have to be better on first down.”
If anything has come out of this two-game stretch, it’s that the Steelers are still woefully short of impact pass-game players and need to address wide receiver this offseason. For Pickens, his value to the team has never been higher, something his agent will surely remind the organization of when angling for a contract extension come the summer.
