Coming into the season, the Pittsburgh Steelers wanted to do two things consistently on offense. First, they wanted to run the football. And then they hoped the Aaron Rodgers-DK Metcalf connection would be strong enough to carry a passing attack that doesn’t have a standout second weapon.
The Steelers have ran the ball well at times, including in their 31-28 loss to the Chicago Bears on Sunday, but they haven’t worked to establish the run consistently enough this year. When it comes to Metcalf, he just can’t get anything going, and defenses are finding ways to neutralize him every week. Former Steeler Chris Hoke is getting frustrated with the simplicity of the Steelers’ offense.
“Remember about a month and a half ago when you started seeing Aaron Rodgers forcing the ball to DK Metcalf? Little quick throws, little quick slants. We’re not seeing many quick slants at all. We’re not seeing anything to get the ball to DK Metcalf with grass in front of him,” Hoke said Sunday on KDKA’s Nightly Sports Call. “The creativity is really lacking, except for that nice little tush push when [Connor Heyward] gave the ball to Kenneth Gainwell. But it’s the same old stuff, the dink and dunk and trying to people on crossers. They’ve got to find a way to get guys open. If you want to see it, go look at the offense for the Chicago Bears today.”
Hoke mentions the fake tush push the Steelers ran, which was a nice call. Connor Heyward handed it to Kenneth Gainwell, who sprinted around the outside and got the Steelers down to the 1-yard line on a 55-yard gain.
But other than that, the creativity really wasn’t there. And given how well the Steelers ran the ball, they really should have been able to open things up a bit more. Gainwell picked up 92 yards on 10 carries, and Jaylen Warren was efficient with 68 on 18 carries as well.
But that didn’t make things easier in the passing game. To their credit, the Steelers did at least try to take some shots down the field. Unfortunately, none of them worked. One was actually picked off by Nahshon Wright on the Steelers’ second play of the game. Unable to find any consistency down the field, Pittsburgh simply tried to check the ball down.
That worked against Cincinnati last week, a team with several young and inexperienced linebackers. But even with the Bears missing all three of their starting linebackers, they contained the checkdowns much better. Mason Rudolph was able to rack up passing yards on underneath routes last week, and that just wasn’t available in Chicago.
A lack of adjustments is something that’s been plaguing the Steelers all season. Once again, they got off to a good start and took an early lead. But they had just 29 yards in the third quarter after taking the lead into halftime. You’re just not going to win games that way. And even though it was a backup quarterback starting, part of the blame for that should be placed on the rigidity of the Steelers’ game plan.
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