Russell Wilson finished Saturday night's 28-14 loss to the Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium with a 121.3 passer rating. But don't let that fool you. Don't be a box score watcher.

Before Wilson had ever taken a snap at OTAs with the Steelers, I knew Wilson could still throw the deep ball. He hadn't lost that. It was all over the film while he was in Denver. He's done it throughout this season, and he did it multiple times Saturday night.

In fact, the deep ball produced both of the Steelers' touchdowns:

The problem is this is the only way the Steelers can move the ball now. Really. That's not a hyperbolic statement. The Ravens' coaching staff pointed it out on Hard Knocks: "it's either three-pointers or layups."

What's even worse is there weren't any layups Saturday night. Now, that's not all on Russ. Pat Freiermuth dropped the first pass of the game on a quick first-down pass. It's an all-around offensive issue. No team was worse in yards per play on first down this season than Pittsburgh. Second down was no picnic, either. That translated into this game. The offense had just 59 yards at halftime as the team trailed, 21-0.

Now, you might watch the second half and wonder where that offense was all along. The problem with relying on the deep ball is, regardless of the talent that's available at receiver, it's a low-percentage play. It just is. George Pickens is special, but it's not even a 50/50 ball like the Steelers think it is. I can dig through the numbers to prove it if I have to.

Let's break this down. Wilson threw six passes of 20-plus air yards. He completed five of those for 154 yards and two touchdowns. Again, we know he can throw the deep ball.

For the rest of the game, Wilson completed 15 of 23 passes for 116 yards. That's 5.04 yards per attempt. That ... doesn't move the needle. At all. Also, take a look at Wilson's passing chart and tell me what's wrong with it:

NFL NEXT GEN STATS

I'll tell you: Not one pass attempt in the intermediate range. Not one pass attempt throws in between 10-19 yards downfield. 

Before anyone tries to pin that on Arthur Smith, sorry, this is Wilson's game. It was been for a long time. There's no intermediate game. This makes defending him very, very easy for really good defenses such as Baltimore. Hence, when they were taking away the ability to throw the ball deep in the first half, the offense was anemic and produced 59 yards and two first downs in 30 minutes of football.

The offense only possessed the ball for 20:27, as well. If you can't run the ball, and the Steelers didn't even try to do so in this game (just 11 attempts), there has to be a way to manufacture that through the air. They couldn't do it because running a quick passing game with short and intermediate throws is not Wilson's forte. Never has been.

Here's tangible proof of what I'm talking about. Of the five deep balls Wilson completed, four of which were on the two touchdown drives -- three of those on the 98-yard drive that produced the Steelers' first score of the game. On the offense's other six drives (not counting the kneel down to close out the first half), Wilson completed one deep ball. And that's the only one of those six drives in which the offense moved the ball past the 50-yard line.

The Steelers literally could not move the ball without the deep ball. This is not the way to play offense in this league. Not at any point in the history of this game, but especially now when defenses are so good at keeping everything in front of them. That's the trend in the NFL. But, because Wilson can throw the deep ball, that's become the default engine for the offense.

Should the Steelers bring Wilson back, I fear for what this offense can do. Despite Wilson's nickname, the offense would be very limited.