Steelers offense
Steelers offense
What is wrong with the Steelers’ offense?
Through two games, the Steelers have scored two touchdowns, and the offense provided only one, the other by T.J. Watt. In fact, they have scored a total of 23 points, of which the offense is responsible for 16. After scoring 20 in the opener—including a pick-six—they managed just three points yesterday.
But offense is the specialty of new Steelers HC Mike McCarthy, so what’s going on? At least on paper, almost everything should be an improvement from last season, or at least a lateral move. The two biggest losses were Isaac Seumalo and Kenneth Gainwell, but those should not be insurmountable.
The Steelers are struggling to retool up front on offense, though, moving Troy Fautanu and Mason McCormick from the right side to the left. They’re certainly not the only issues with the offensive line, which is clearly not where it needs to be. And yet it’s the only group of starters that played extensively in the preseason.
It doesn’t help that the player who is supposed to be the Steelers’ biggest threat on offense is, quite literally, dropping the ball. I’m talking about DK Metcalf, of course, who has at least three drops through two games. Depending on what source you use, you might see more than that. And Aaron Rodgers certainly hasn’t been perfect, while the run game has yet to take off.
Are these just the growing pains, or will the Steelers’ offense sputter all season? Mike McCarthy had some great offenses, but he also had some great pieces with great quarterbacks. The Aaron Rodgers he has now is certainly not the Aaron Rodgers with whom he won a Super Bowl. He’s not even Dak Prescott, for that matter.
I think it’s reasonable to assert that it can’t possibly be this bad all season, but maybe we need to lower the ceiling for expectations for this unit, too. Surprisingly, just removing Mike Tomlin from the equation didn’t magically fix everything, hard as it is to believe. Germie Bernard should be a future bright spot, but even he contributed to yesterday’s negativity. Max Iheanachor will start, eventually, but will he actually be good? What do we know about the Steelers’ offense right now that we can count on as actually good?
The Steelers have a long road ahead of them under Mike McCarthy, along with his cadre of quarterbacks.With seven consecutive postseason losses, and no wins in nearly a decade, they are under fire for their repeated playoff failures. While we have seen many changes, none could dream of topping Mike Tomlin resigning.
We’re already into the regular season. The Steelers, of course, are used to early offseason mode as a team thatloses by the middle of January all the time. Enjoy the ride, even the turbulence, because it’s the only way we know how to travel anymore.