Three ways the Steelers can fix their offensive woes

The Steelers may need to rethink the scheme to get the running game going

Look, I have never been an offensive coordinator, but I do call my own plays when I play Madden 20 ©.  That was my attempt at some comic relief, but the reality is the Steelers running game is no laughing matter.  With an average of 3.8 yards per rushing attempt, which is good for the 23rd spot, Fichtner may have to rethink his personnel grouping.

In other words, instead of trying to run the ball with only one TE on the field, run with two TEs, one preferably serving as an ‘H-back’ which we discussed earlier, and deploy the ‘zone split’ concept that Steelers fans are used to seeing.  Again, I am no OC, so my explanation will be rudimentary at best.

In a ‘zone split’ play, the TE comes across the formation and ‘kicks out’ the defender at the end of the line of scrimmage. We have really not seen this type of play being utilized with any alacrity.  What the Steelers have been trying to do without Nix in the lineup is to run out of a ‘bunch’ formation via a quick toss type of play, to run the ‘wildcat’ or just to run straight ahead and hope the RB can get to the second level of the defense.

The schematic fix here may just be to find an ‘H-back’ and run ‘power’, which, again, Steelers fans are used to seeing or go back to the ‘zone split’ concept that we have run successfully over the years.  I think that’s a simple fix, but it may be more complex than I realize.

Let’s take a look at what the Steelers can do to fix the passing game.