The Pittsburgh Steelers and head coach Mike Tomlin seemed to have an offensive vision against the Cincinnati Bengals on Saturday evening. That was to run the ball over and over again. And at face value, that makes sense.
The Bengals finished the season allowing 2,122 yards (19th in the league) and 20 rushing touchdowns (24th). And they gave up 4.4 yards per carry. That should be a recipe for success for the Steelers. Unfortunately, the Steelers only managed to gain 74 yards on 23 carries Saturday. And they lost their fourth-straight game, 19-17.
But even more telling is that the Steelers were utterly predictable in the run game. Per Pro Football Reference, the Steelers ran the ball on their first nine first-down plays. They only switched to throwing the ball on first down late in the first half when they were trying to engineer a scoring drive to maximize getting the ball to start the second half. Once they started the second half, they then ran on three straight first downs again. That’s running on 12 of their first 15 first-down opportunities against the Bengals.
Does Mike Tomlin regret that approach? Would he prefer to see more unpredictability in the offensive game plan going forward?
“From a broader discussion, certainly,” Tomlin said Monday during his weekly press conference via video from the Steelers’ YouTube channel. “But we also had an agenda in that game. And that’s oftentimes the things that you balance, a personality that you value along with a specific agenda and an effort to create an environment that’s conducive to winning a game. [Those] are things that we weigh from a planning perspective every day of our lives from a coaching standpoint.”
The Steelers have certainly placed a major emphasis on the running game this season. Mike Tomlin has always valued a strong running game. And offensive coordinator Arthur Smith’s offenses have always been run-focused. The Steelers finished fourth in the league with 533 total rushing attempts. But they only generated 4.1 yards per carry, 25th in the league. So why did the Steelers stick with something that wasn’t as effective as they would have liked?
“We do not live in our fears,” Tomlin said. “We formulate plans to try to position ourselves to control the game. And sometimes it might be minimizing our exposure to Joe Burrow with how we play offensively. So certainly based on the outcome, that judgement is open for discussion. For us, it’s about playing to a personality that we prescribe to engineer victory, to possess the ball. And a component of possessing the ball is not only time but managing risk. And obviously, there’s less risk with running the football than throwing it. Sometimes that’s a component of this discussion as well.”
That’s an odd juxtaposition. Tomlin says that the Steelers don’t live in their fears, but evidently the game plan was crafted around fear that Burrow would dice the defense apart. Alas, it did not result in a win for the reeling Steelers. So yes, the Steelers’ run game-centric focus should certainly be open for discussion based on the results.
And it’s also a far cry from how the Steelers game planned in their 44-38 win over the Bengals in Week 13. The Steelers only ran the ball 15 times while QB Russell Wilson attempted 38 passes. In total, Wilson dropped back 42 times (four sacks by the Bengals) that game.
Wilson dropped back 35 times (31 pass attempts and four sacks) in Week 18. It was a completely different game plan on Saturday. And while the Steelers were able to hold the Bengals essentially nine points below their season average, they failed to bounce back offensively. Neither the run game nor the pass game were effective for large stretches of the game.
And perhaps even more confusing was the lack of carries for RB Jaylen Warren. He had been running the ball more in recent weeks with double-digit carries in back-to-back weeks against the Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs. But he only had six carries for 21 yards against the Bengals. And he was only targeted once in the passing game. Prior to the game, Tomlin had talked up Warren’s recent production as him being the “hot hand.” But RB Najee Harris doubled his carries against the Bengals.
Tomlin said that the goal of the offensive scheme was “to control the game.” And while they certainly limited the Bengals’ offensive production, they did in no way control the game. The Bengals held the ball for 38 minutes despite QB Joe Burrow dropping back 50 times (46 passing attempts and four sacks).
So the Bengals controlled the flow of the game despite 15 more drop backs and two fewer rushing attempts than the Steelers. Perhaps running the ball isn’t the only way to control possession, Mike Tomlin.
Sure, running the ball may minimize risks in terms of turning the ball over. But right now, the focus on the run game without it being efficient or explosive is putting the Steelers at risk of extending their four-game losing streak. And that’s a much bigger problem than throwing an interception.
