Although last week in Cleveland was their best performance yet, the Steelers' offense is still really struggling.
Calling it a “work in progress” is a kind way of putting it. The offense is producing 4.7 yards per play. 30.5% of the Steelers' offensive plays result in a first down or a touchdown. They’ve produced just 49 first downs. Mitch Trubisky averages 5.5 yards per passing attempt and Najee Harris averages 3.2 yards per carry.
All these numbers are near the bottom of the league in each respective category, and the Steelers are dead last in the league by a wide margin in time of possession, something that has greatly affected the defense in a negative manner.
As a team, the Steelers are scoring 18 points per game. The offense by itself is scoring 15.3 points per game. But you know what? This isn’t an uncommon problem in the NFL right now.
In fact, going into the Monday night's game, there were 17 teams averaging 20 points per game or less. In 2021, there were only 10 franchises that generated fewer than 20 points per game. In 2020, there were just four teams that failed to produce 20 points per game. Scoring is down through three weeks, and it is a league-wide issue. Even this past Sunday, the Chiefs, Bills, Chargers, Rams, Cardinals, Packers, Buccaneers, and Broncos -- that is a pretty darn good group of eight of the very best quarterbacks in the league -- averaged just 14.4 points in Week 3.
Why is offense behind defense across the league? A big reason is that offensive lines take a long time to gel. And more so than at any point in NFL history, the athletes on the defensive front are immensely superior to the big people doing the blocking.
Offense is also a more precise art that needs repetitions and time to get dialed-in in terms of timing, blocking angles, precision route running, and just so many aspects of excelling on this side of the ball. One blown block destroys a play, as does a missed read by the quarterback, or a receiver not adjusting his route to the proper coverage. You get the idea. The offensive side of the ball is more complex. Defense is much more reactionary and based on athleticism.
That doesn’t excuse what is going on with the Steelers' offense this year -- not one bit, but who amongst us realistically thought this side of the ball was going to come out of the gate and light the league on fire?
We knew the offensive line would take time and, as you might have read last week, that group is clearly getting better. And Week 3 was the line’s best performance yet in protection, as well as the running game. Mason Cole and Kevin Dotson are 26 years old. They are the elder statesmen of the Steelers' offensive line. Dan Moore isn’t even 24 years old yet.
A very strong argument can be made that the skill player fivesome of Harris, Pat Freiermuth, Diontae Johnson, Chase Claypool, and George Pickens is, at worst, a top 10 unit in this league. Those five players have a total of seven full seasons and 15 games of NFL experience ... combined.
Here is an example of pre-snap misdirection, something that often helps linemen get better blocking angles, aiding the run game. But more so than the pre-snap action, this is a case of just excellent run blocking by the left side of the Steelers' offensive front and Harris attacking the big crease and then finishing the run with aggression and nastiness. Such examples were few and far between to start the season:
Now that isn’t to say that those two five-man units don’t deserve at least some blame for the Steelers' lack of offensive production. No one is perfect and, while the line could use a true blue chip player, that group has played well enough by offensive line-starved NFL standards to support a successful offense overall.
Well, this one speaks for itself and was just too spectacular of a play to leave out. The Steelers' receiving corps are not short on talent, and Pickens exemplifies this with as fantastic of a catch as you will ever see. But also take notice of Trubisky affecting the safety by looking and pumping to his left, although all along, he knew he was attacking the one-on-one matchup down the sideline to Pickens:
The use of play action here freezes the second level of the defense for just a beat. The blitz pickup by Harris is fantastic as he dumps the Browns blitzer on his head, giving Trubisky a little more time to improvise and Cleveland’s cover man a little longer to try to keep up with Johnson, who gains great separation before snatching the ball for a nice gain. A lot of components of this play had to go right for such a result:
Now that leaves the quarterback and coaching. To be very honest, blame is deserved for both of those components. Who deserves more blame? That isn’t easy to say just yet, but what is easy to say is that Trubisky’s job and Matt Canada’s responsibilities are more difficult than those of the linemen or skill guys.
Will these two better learn one another and improve? Possibly. They did in Week 3. That isn’t to predict that Trubisky and Canada are soon to become this generation’s Joe Montana and Bill Walsh, but it is to say that they might deserve a little more time before we know exactly what this final product will look like.
Of course, the elephant in the room is Kenny Pickett. Would the offense look different with Pickett at the controls instead of Trubisky? It would. Would it be better? Who is to say? Is it time to find out? A strong case can be made for both sides of this argument, but the reality is that Mike Tomlin isn’t going to make that move right now.
And believe it or not folks, he knows much better than any of us and actually spends an awful lot of time with all involved. We do not.
When the 2022 season concludes, there absolutely will not be half of the league producing under 20 points per game. Mark that down in stone.
I do feel your pain with the Steelers' offense. But this isn’t a unique problem in the NFL right now. And I hate to say it, but this is still a work in progress. But better times could be on the horizon. You are not alone.