Flavell's Five Thoughts: Steelers Offense is Struggling in Every Facet
Week two in the NFL turned out to be a wild week and somehow more entertaining as a whole than the opening weekend last week. The New England Patriots and the Pittsburgh Steelers combined for more than likely the most boring game of the week.
Bill Belichick brought his team to Acrisure Stadium as betting favorites and, as usual, Vegas knows best as his Patriots were able to bring down the Steelers 17-14 Sunday afternoon.
Both defenses played well Sunday and both offenses were lackluster at times. TJ Watt’s absence was certainly felt. The Steelers’ faithful began the inevitable “KEN-NY!” chants in regards to their desire to see first-round draft pick Kenny Pickett take over as QB1. The Steelers were unable to overcome this lackluster performance unlike last weekend when they took down the Cincinnati Bengals.
It wouldn’t be another week of Steelers’ football without a lot to talk about. Without further ado, let’s get on with it.
Steelers Lack Pressure in Watt’s Absence
When Watt went down last weekend, it was pretty apparent that the Steelers’ pass rush would likely take a bit of a hit. The Patriots don’t possess an elite offensive line so to see the Steelers get absolutely no push would be quite concerning. Unfortunately, that is exactly what happened.
Pittsburgh pass rush was unable to get to Patriots quarterback Mac Jones once Sunday afternoon and allowed him a nice, consistently clean pocket to work with all game long. Jones parlayed that into 21-of-35 for 252 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
Pittsburgh was only credited with three quarterback hits all game long. However, outside linebacker Malik Reed, Watt’s replacement, was able to draw two separate holding penalties in the contest and was credited with one of the QB hits. Reed didn’t look bad in his first start in place of Watt but finalizing his rushes with a sack would’ve made a solid game look much better for him.
The Steelers have had only two home games since Watt came into the league in 2017 in which they did not record a single sack. Unironically, Watt was unavailable in both contests.
With a Thursday night game in Cleveland next on the docket, I’m sure the Steelers will focus on how they can get after the quarterback a bit more without their star pass rusher.
Trubisky Takes Step Backwards
Last week, Mitch Trubisky didn’t have his greatest game. He took ownership of that fact and sighted the fact that he needs to be more aggressive in finding receivers downfield. Boy, oh boy, did he do the exact opposite on Sunday.
For the second week in a row, Trubisky refused to throw anything more than 10 yards downfield or anything over the middle. The passing game was kept to the outskirts along the sidelines and often near the line of scrimmage.
It seemed that Trubisky was unsettled as a lot of his throws came off-balance without setting his feet and driving into them. He felt like a one-read quarterback for most of the day as he seemed dead set on immediately finding running back Najee Harris in the flat if his initial read wasn’t open.
Another uninspiring performance saw Trubisky complete 21-of-33 passes for a lackluster 168 yards. He had a red zone touchdown to Pat Freiermuth that was ironically over the middle of the field and an ugly interception in the first half that he threw into triple coverage.
The fans' calls for Pickett were loud-and-clear on Sunday. I’d be hard-pressed to believe that Pickett will start on a short week Thursday in Cleveland. But you have to believe that another ugly performance by Trubisky coupled with 10 days off after a Thursday night game would be a spot where the Steelers could transition to Pickett as the team’s QB1.
Run Defense Fairly Stout Until Fourth Quarter
For the second straight week, the Steelers allowed 100+ yards rushing to their opponent. However, for the second straight week, it took more than 30 carries to do so. Essentially, the volume of runs the Bengals and Patriots deployed against the Steelers led to inevitable 100-yard performances.
There weren’t many chunk plays until the fourth quarter when the Patriots seemed to have more success running the football against what appeared to be a tired defense. Cam Heyward, one of the team’s premier run stoppers, was subbed out on a few third down run situations due to fatigue. That obviously isn’t ideal.
The Patriots won the time of possession battle by keeping the Steelers’ defense on the field for 33:36. The offense just wasn’t able to move the ball and pick up enough first downs to keep the defense fresh on the sidelines.
Pittsburgh’s prideful defense would like to keep the opposing team under 100-yards rushing. They’re at least keeping the big chunk plays to a minimum.
Running Game Leaves A Lot to be Desired
The gadget plays designed for Chase Claypool last week were left in Cincinnati as the Steelers focused on a more straightforward rushing attack. While Najee Harris was able to surpass his rushing totals from last week, he didn’t get much going.
Harris finished with 49 yards on 15 carries and had a long run of eight yards. Jaylen Warren didn’t fare much better with just 15 yards on four carries. The offensive line, albeit better in pass protection, didn’t give much room for either guy to run.
The Patriots stacked the box and left one safety high knowing the Steelers likely weren’t going to test the deep ball. That led to a lot of human walls being run into by Harris and Co. in the ground game.
At some point, the Steelers’ first-round pick is going to have to look like a first-round pick and the line isn’t giving him much chance to do that. Luckily, he is Trubisky’s favorite target so he is still making contributions in the passing game (40 receiving yards) which is a positive thing.
Pickens Invisible Thus Far and Not By Design
When the Pittsburgh Steelers took George Pickens in the second round of the NFL Draft, it was expected he’d seamlessly fit in and make an impact like every receiver the Steelers select.
So far, Pickens has been targeted a measly six times by Mitch Trubisky. That’s because Trubisky doesn’t even seem to look in the direction of Pickens who is open more often than not downfield.
The lack of trust in Trubisky seems fairly evident. Pickens gets separation more than 10+ yards downfield but Trubisky can’t seem to bring himself to even look for the rookie.
In more irony for you, Pickens caught Trubisky’s longest play of the day for 23 yards on a route near the sidelines. It was an athletic catch where he beat his man and made Trubisky look good in the process.
Pickens won’t be surpassing Diontae Johnson on the depth chart anytime soon but he deserves way more looks than he’s getting now especially since he’s creating the separation and space to get open.
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