For the past three games, the Steelers have incorporated Spencer Anderson; for the past three games, they’ve run the ball well. An extra lineman, Anderson has seen playing time as part of a “jumbo” package to strengthen their blocking. The look has former Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger’s attention, who praised it on his Footbahlin podcast.
“That jumbo package is something else right now. It’s really working now”, he said, offering some praise for Anderson. “It’s something defenses are gonna start trying to figure it out, and you’re gonna have to come up with wrinkles. And I think Arthur Smith is doing a great job of getting us in situations. I probably would have stuck with the run a little bit more”.
The Steelers lost their last game to the Bengals, 33-31. Though they scored a go-ahead touchdown on their last complete drive, they did have a bad five-possession stretch that included a punt and two interceptions. Roethlisberger believes the Steelers should have leaned more into Anderson and the jumbo package with the run game. “Right now, the run game, it’s there”, he said.
And it was there, if only there were more of it. The Steelers ran the ball a total of 20 times, using the jumbo package only a fraction of that time. Spencer Anderson only played seven snaps, his fewest in weeks. But they rushed for a collective 147 yards, averaging 7.3 yards per attempt. It was their best, most efficient game on the ground all season, and something they need to build on.
Another reason Roethlisberger wants the Steelers’ run game to lean into Anderson and the jumbo package is because of the issues they’ve had with play disparity. Right now, the offense isn’t running nearly enough plays, while the defense is running far too many. Against the Bengals, they lost the time of possession battle by nearly 10 minutes.
“How can we possess the ball longer? Give the other team the least amount of time as possible right now”, he said of his thinking while discussing the Steelers’ jumbo package. This season, they have 567 rushing yards on 144 attempts, averaging 3.9 yards per carry, with three touchdowns. By all of those metrics, they rank in the mid-20s leaguewide.
Last year, the Steelers were among the league leaders in rushing attempts. But now they barely manage to execute five plays per drive, making it difficult to establish a rhythm, let alone a run game. They run the fewest plays per drive in the entire league. The Steelers’ jumbo package won’t magically fix that—but it can’t hurt, either.
