Steelers vs. Colts: Stacking wins could mean a playoff birth
By Eric Hassel
A second-year running back leads the way in the passing game for the Steelers
If you were to give me the following stat line, I would assume we were referring to the productivity of a wide receiver: 13 receptions on 13 targets for 73 yards. According to NFL.com, the stats above belong to a Steelers running back, Jaylen Samuels.
In addition to his contributions in the passing game, Samuels added 10 yards on the ground. The Steelers managed to gain only 90 yards rushing, 73 of which came from Trey Edmunds. If the last name sounds familiar to you, it should. He is a sibling of Terrell Edmunds.
Having played one year of high school football with my older brother, I can only imagine how proud Terrell Edmunds was of his brother and his performance against the Colts on Sunday. We needed every yard of those 73 yards to win that game. The running game just wasn’t the same without James Conner, who missed the game because of an injury.
If you’re a big stat person like I am, you’ll cringe to hear the Steelers offense is currently ranked 28th on yards per game, averaging 290.8 yards per game. To put that into perspective, the offense is marching up and down the field less than thrice per game. That ain’t good, to put it mildly.
The running game is ranked 26th, while the passing game is ranked 27th. Putting the obvious aside for a moment, which is the fact that Conner missed the game against the Colts, the Steelers offense is just stagnated right now.
When the leading receiver in a game is a running back, that tells me all I need to know: The wide receivers, whose job it is to catch the ball, are not getting consistent separation and are not consistently winning one-on-one battles.
Yes, the QB has to throw the ball down the field to target the receivers, but if they aren’t open, he has to dump it off to the open person. Against the Colts, the Steelers offense gained 273 yards. Again, that ain’t good, and that ain’t gonna get it done.
Let’s see how the defense fared against the Colts.