Do no harm. It’s the other doctors take and the approach the Pittsburgh Steelers must adopt once they reach the red zone. Self-inflicted wounds are one reason the team enters Week 13 with the 30th-ranked red zone offense, an eyesore for an organization hoping to win the division and their first playoff games in eight years. Reporting Sunday morning, NFL Network’s Steve Wyche says TE Pat Freiermuth offered an honest assessment of how Pittsburgh can score more touchdowns.
“As Pat Freiermuth told me, when they get in scoring position, they have to stop doing dumb stuff,” Wyche said on NFLN’s Gameday Morning. False starts, holding penalties, dropping passes. Because plays have been there.”
It’s the worst Dr. Seuss book you could read. False starts, penalties, drops, and miscues. Oh, the places the Steelers will go. Which, it turns out, is only going backwards. In such precious real estate, details and mistakes get magnified. A dropped pass looms large. A penalty harder to overcome. And there have been plenty of both.
The New York Giants’ game is a prime example. A flag on OT Broderick Jones negated a touchdown, while WR George Pickens failed to get both feet inbounds on another occasion, wiping out another score. QB Russell Wilson threw a pick against the Baltimore Ravens while an (albeit questionable) offensive pass interference took another score off the board in Week 2 against the Denver Broncos. With small red zone sample sizes, that narrow list of failures has a big impact. Hypothetically, if Pittsburgh found the end zone on all those drives, they’d become 18th in red zone offense.
However, hypotheticals only matter in articles like these. All that matters is Pittsburgh starts producing. A sounder and smarter scheme will help, too, from OC Arthur Smith, who isn’t expected to jump ship to North Carolina this offseason. Using Pat Freiermuth in tight could also help. He has just seven red zone targets this season. That’s only one more than WR Van Jefferson. Throwing to Pat Freiermuth has been productive, resulting in five first downs and three touchdowns.
They’ll have a great chance against a 31st-ranked Cincinnati Bengals red zone defense that has allowed teams to convert 75 percent over their last four games. The Steelers will likely need points, knowing the one thing the Bengals do well is score.
