Pittsburghs Offensive Future Depends On Building On New Strengths
Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Yes, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense finally, at long last, eclipsed the 400-yard mark. Kenny Pickett had a 97.8 passer rating, and they out-gained and out-possessed the Cincinnati Bengals. Their mind-boggling 58-game drought of sub-400-yard games is finally over, and it’s like a tall glass of Yuengling after a long walk through the desert.
But, despite the numbers, firing He Who Must Not Be Named isn’t quite the panacea that Steelers fans might hope it would be.
Pittsburgh had average-to-decent offensive showings this season with You Know Who, before then proceeding to lay a goose egg the very next week.
Still, based on their performance against the Bengals, there are reasons to be cautiously optimistic. It was the first step in the right direction, and the Steelers now have strengths that they can continue to build upon in the home stretch of the season.
Perhaps the biggest thing, bigger even than Pickett’s improvement, is the running game finally starting to look like it did the second half of last year when the Steelers were able to lean on their backs en route to a 7-2 hot streak.
Against the Bengals, Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren combined for 148 rushing yards.
“He was awesome. He was running downhill,” Pickett said of Harris during postgame after the Bengals win. “Being able to watch from kind of a bird’s eye view from behind, you see how he was hitting the holes, he was hitting the holes hard, and it was great to have Najee and (Warren) doing their thing like they usually do. It’s a huge positive. I’m really happy for No. 22 and putting up the yards that we put up today. Just gotta get the points.”
Heading into Week 13, Warren and Harris are both in the top six for most rushing yards in the NFL since Week 9 — a span of four games. Warren tops the list with 367 yards, while Harris is tied for fifth with 285 yards in that timeframe.
As the weather gets colder and messier and the players start to get worn down as the season moves along, being able to lean on a productive, consistent run game will be essential for the Steelers.
Pickett has faced a lot of questions lately about whether he actually could be a franchise-caliber quarterback. Based on how he played Sunday, he might have a good answer to those questions.
Pickett had his best game of the season throwing the ball in Cincinnati. He had his highest completion percentage of the year (72.7), highest yardage total (278), and highest passer rating (97.8), all while throwing his second-most attempts (33). He also had his second-highest number of completions (24) and his second-highest yards per attempt (8.4). The numbers are unambiguous.
“We always knew what we were capable of doing, it’s just putting it together,” Pickett said. “We still haven’t 100% really put it together. We were driving really good. We feel like we left points out there, but you gotta take the positives and continue to march forward, which is what we plan on doing.”
In recent weeks, Pickett’s passing charts on NFL Next Gen Stats have looked dismal. Everything was either outside the hashes or near the line of scrimmage, with barely anything downfield. That changed against the Bengals, as Pickett was able to complete passes both over the middle and downfield. That has to continue to carry over into upcoming games.
“I thought we spread the ball around,” Tomlin said. “I thought we changed up things schematically and did different things — launch points. I thought we attacked down the field early when they were in split safeties and we weren’t going to let them sit in that comfortably all day. We did what we needed to do.”
The playoffs are very much within reach.
With the seventh-easiest remaining schedule in the NFL, Pittsburgh has a 78% chance of making the playoffs, according to the NY Times. After missing out last year, getting back to the postseason would go a long way towards making this Pickett-led squad look like the perennial contenders of the Ben Rothlisberger era.
Currently, the Steelers are in the top Wild Card spot and are only 1.5 games behind the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC North.
With upcoming games against the hapless Arizona Cardinals, the flailing New England Patriots, Anthony Richardson-less Indianapolis Colts, and the Joe Burrow-less Cincinnati Bengals, the Steelers have a great opportunity to build on what the offense is doing post-You Know Who as they finish out the season at Seattle and Baltimore.
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