Over the last month, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense has been rather dreadful.
The Steelers failed to score more than 17 points in four straight games, which is something they didn’t even do in the Matt Canada era, which tells you how poorly things have gone in recent weeks for the Black and Gold.
Unfortunately, it’s not just one issue that’s causing the struggles. For former NFL QB and current ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky, it’s a myriad of reasons, specifically the Steelers’ inability to get to the second level in the run game and not having a passing game that attacks the middle of the field.
Appearing on The Rich Eisen Show Wednesday afternoon, Orlovsky laid out the reasons why he believes the Steelers are struggling offensively as much as they are.
“There’s two parts to every offense, right? It’s your pass game and your run game one. Their run game, and really the main issue all season long, this isn’t pre-Russell Wilson being the quarterback or after Justin Fields. They don’t do a good job of getting to the second level in their run game,” Orlovsky said. “There is consistently a misidentification of, ‘Okay, I’m the center and I’m the guard and we’re gonna run a double team and we have to run the double team to this second level player, a linebacker.’
“And one person will go to ’em and one person won’t, or they’ll completely leave a guy. So they’ve struggled with that and the run game all season long, or they’ll whiff at it.”
While the Steelers want to be a physical, smashmouth offense, one that is built around a power rushing attack, which has seen the Steelers invest in the run game from an offensive line perspective, their execution in the run game has largely been a mess.
That was never more clear than in Week 18 against the Cincinnati Bengals in which the Bengals had a number of defenders running free into the backfield, bottling up Pittsburgh. It’s hard to generate much of a rushing attack when running backs have to avoid defenders behind the line of scrimmage.
Some of those general issues with missed assignments, not being on the same page, or whatever the case may be can be attributed to it being a young offensive line still getting experience together. But to have the worst game of the season in the final week, which is when the group should be ascending, not descending, is very concerning.
It’s not just the run game, either.
The passing game leaves much to be desired, and that’s been the case for much of the season due to Russell Wilson’s 3-pointers and layups outlook as a passer.
For Orlovsky, it’s quite clear why the passing game struggles. It’s because if George Pickens has safety help over the top, the deep ball is out of the picture, and there’s nothing in the middle of the field that Wilson is willing to attack.
“Their pass offense is really twofold. They are a, ‘We wanna throw the ball on the perimeter one-on-one down the field nine outta 10 times to George Pickens.’ If you don’t give them that, if you structurally play with the safety over the top and don’t give them that, there’s not much of the pass game that they feel comfortable going to outside of maybe a [Pat] Freiermuth on a corner route or an out route,” Orlovsky said. “But that’s about it. Russell does not see the middle of the field well right now. That’s kind of been the story of the past couple years for Russ.
“That’s why I always get fascinated when I still watch teams defensively, occasionally, still play Pickens one-on-one.”
It’s clear that the Steelers with Wilson want to attack vertically, whether that’s with Pickens, Calvin Austin III or Mike Williams. Time and time again, Wilson is going to pull the trigger on the moon ball, giving his receivers a chance to make a play.
But if you take that away with safety help over the top and not playing a guy like Pickens one-on-one, there’s not much else in the passing game. Wilson doesn’t utilize the middle of the field because he doesn’t see it all that well. That lessens the potential impact of a guy like Freiermuth and really makes the Steelers’ offense easier to play against, which has shown in recent weeks as Pittsburgh really has had no answer for opposing defenses.
For Orlovsky, the struggles of Wilson and the Steelers’ passing game is like a pitcher in baseball having just one pitch to throw. And if that pitch isn’t working, he’s cooked.
“And so if you don’t give them that, it’s, imagine it like you’re playing another sport, like a pitcher. If you don’t allow the pitcher to throw the fastball, he’s got nothing else,” Orlovsky added. “And that’s right now their fastball. And when it’s there, they have a shot to have some success on offense. If it’s not, they really don’t have a second pitch to get to.”
Lately, the Steelers don’t have a second pitch to go to, leaving them with few answers. It could be more of the same Saturday night against the Ravens, unless OC Arthur Smith, Wilson and the Steelers’ offense figure some things out leading up to the Wild Card showdown in Baltimore.
