If there is one area that could decide the fate of the 2024 Pittsburgh Steelers, it would probably be the red-zone offense. While the offense has been moving the ball well since Russell Wilson entered the starting lineup, they hadn’t been capitalizing on their red-zone opportunities.
Through the first two games of the AFC North four-game gauntlet, the Steelers had scored just one touchdown on six opportunities in the red zone with four field goals and an interception. That is an abysmal 16.6 touchdown rate. That dragged their season average down to 44.7 percent.
Week 13’s 44-38 win wasn’t perfect, but it was a step in the right direction with two touchdowns and two field goals on four attempts. It was a significant focus for the team over their mini-bye week following Thursday Night Football.
“We needed all 44 of those points today, didn’t we?” Mike Tomlin said after the game via the Steelers’ YouTube channel. “When you’re playing against Joe Burrow and company, chances are you’re gonna have to score some points. That’s why we took advantage of the mini-bye in terms of focusing our energies on red-zone performance. And I’m thankful for that. It looked like we reaped the benefits of that labor today with the way they performed particularly in the red area.”
A 50 percent conversion rate isn’t excellent, but it was enough to get the job done today, and the number is a little misleading. You can’t count the end-of-half field goal against them. They got into the red zone with three seconds remaining and kicked a field goal.
The way they got it when they did score touchdowns was encouraging. The first time was a 17-yard catch-and-run by George Pickens up the left sideline on the first play of the red-zone opportunity. The other was a 10-yard run by Najee Harris to punch it in. Again, it was just one play once they entered the red zone. The first three red-zone opportunities were three total plays.
They probably wish they could’ve had the last one back. In the fourth quarter, they ran six plays inside the red zone before kicking a field goal. A touchdown would have effectively ended the game, though they did manage to burn an extra two minutes of clock in the process.
Arthur Smith said that the red-zone woes were mostly self-inflicted wounds during his last media availability on Thursday. They stayed pretty clean overall, which helped their success rate. There were no penalties to negate the touchdowns, and they executed with a pair of 10-plus yard touchdowns.
There is still room for improvement, however, with a false start, two runs for negative yardage, and a sack taken in the red zone on Sunday.
It also helps that they were finding ways to score explosive touchdowns from outside the red zone. Even if they can get to roughly average across the league with a touchdown rate of 56 percent, that would completely change the flow of the Steelers’ games. Week 13 was a step in the right direction.
