Remember the days when the Steelers' offense was comprised of Antonio Brown and Le'Veon Bell being the primary playmakers?
When one was hurt, all other teams had to do was double-team or focus on shutting down one man. That's what the Patriots did to Brown when they beat the Steelers in the 2017 AFC Championship Game.
Well, those days appear to be gone.
That's thanks to Kevin Colbert loading the offense with a mix of talent that presents considerable threats in very different ways, as was evident when they beat the Texans, 28-21, at Heinz Field on Sunday.
Ben Roethlisberger finished with efficient numbers, 23 of 36 for 237 yards, two touchdown passes and no interceptions. That brings his numbers to seven touchdowns and only one interception through three games. That's a pace for approximately 37 touchdown passes and six interceptions, higher than Roethlisberger's career high of 34 touchdown passes in 2018 and career best margin of touchdowns to interceptions with 23 in 2014.
What's remarkable is how Roethlisberger's spread the ball amongst the Steelers' available weapons: Through three games, JuJu Smith-Schuster leads the team with three touchdowns, but each of James Washington, Diontae Johnson, Chase Claypool and Eric Ebron has a touchdown of his own.
Even more notable than that is the fact that the team's three leading receivers are all within eleven yards of each other, as Smith-Schuster leads the team with 160 yards, followed by Claypool with 151 and Johnson with 149.
Sunday was an example that even when the team's most targeted wide receiver in Johnson was knocked out of the game with a concussion, that Roethlisberger and his offense have several different ways to beat defenses.
His first touchdown pass came to one of his newest weapons in Ebron, who completely bullied A.J. Moore Jr. in the red zone. Ebron doesn't even have to push off Moore to make his 6-foot-4 height something easy for Roethlisberger to target in the end zone:
Ebron presents a mismatch for most players that would have to line up with him outside the numbers. His size, speed and ability to high point a pass make him dangerous in several aspects. After that play, the Steelers capitalized on the Texans' overemphasis of covering Ebron.
Here's a field view of Smith-Schuster's second quarter touchdown on the ensuing drive. The player highlighted is Lonnie Johnson, and he jumps all over a drag route by Johnson. But you also see Moore again, doubling up Ebron in the middle of the field with Zach Cunningham:
Obviously there's a communication breakdown in the Texans' secondary, but the play shows two defenders around both Ebron and Johnson, leaving Smith-Schuster wide open for an easy score.
On top of the passing game, the Steelers have run the ball 90 times for 419 yards, an average of 4.7 yards per carry. That's also featured three straight games with a 100-yard rusher in Benny Snell against the Giants, and James Conner against both the Broncos and Texans.
Roethlisberger started to take advantage of that success with play action and run-pass options in the second half. Here's three crucial conversions in the fourth quarter that kept alive the drives that would put away the game, both playing off the possibility of the run.
Watch on this play action, where Roethlisberger rolls to his right to stretch the play. The Texans follow Conner after the fake, opening up the middle of the field for Roethlisberger to work his eyes back to Vance McDonald over the middle for the conversion:
Then there's the spread offense that the Steelers debuted with rookie Anthony McFarland in the backfield. On fourth down, the Steelers lined up two wide receivers to the left, with a tight end and receiver to the right. That forced the Texans to a decision to either spread out with the Steelers or pack the middle to prepare for the run.
The play is a run-pass option for Roethlisberger to decide at the snap which way to go. He sees only two cornerbacks out with Smith-Schuster and Washington, and waits for Smith-Schuster to screen off Washington's man to make for an easy conversion:
Then of course to close out the game, he went to Claypool. In a drive where the Steelers had run the ball for 35 of the 42 yards gained, they were marching and the Texans were getting desperate to stop the run to give their offense one last chance to tie the game.
So the Steelers come out on 3rd and 9 with an extremely heavy run package that featured Jerald Hawkins as an extra lineman to the right lined up with both tight ends in Ebron and McDonald. The formation forces the Texans to keep nine defenders in the box, hovering over the chance the Steelers run the ball again to grind out the clock.
All Roethlisberger has to do is chuck the ball to Claypool, who faces a lone cornerback out in space, and the big-bodied rookie rumbles for the first down to close the game:
Notice how each of those plays featured Roethlisberger using a different target. That kind of spreading of the targets is going to make the Steelers' offense very tough to predict and lock down. When defenses prepare for the Steelers, if this kind of balance is maintained it will force them to be disciplined across the board for fear Roethlisberger can hurt them with the wide variety of weapons available to him.