Steelers’ greatest concerns vs. greatest comforts after Week 10

Today was a blowout win for the Steelers, yet it was their worst rushing performance of the season.

Earlier this season against Houston, the Steelers put up their best rushing performance in years. Yet in back to back weeks, the Steelers put up an awful rushing performance against a bottom 4 team in the NFL at defending the run. The Cowboys entered their Week 9 matchup against the Steelers ranked 32nd in the league at defending the run. The Steelers only tallied a total of 18 rushing attempts, 15 from their running backs, and averaged just 2.6 yards per carry. It was the worst rushing performance they had put up so far in 2020.

They happened to perform even worse on the ground in Week 10 against a Bengals defense that was ranked 29th in the league against the run. This time around, they had 20 rushing attempts, 16 from their running backs, and only averaged 2.2 yards per carry. The Steelers really need to find a way to get the run game back and quick. As we get later into the season, and the matchups become more important, especially in the playoffs, it will be paramount for the Steelers to be balanced in a productive way.

I’m not saying the Steelers are completely terrible at running the ball by any means. However, in both Week 9 and Week 10, they should have been able to run all over their opponents. They have the offensive line to do it, and they have talent at running back. The offensive line has to be more aggressive in their run blocking. They have been getting blown up by weaker defensive lines in the run game and if the black and gold don’t get that tenacity back that they had at the beginning of the season then it will be a lot harder come playoff time.