Steelers offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner definitely deserves blame for the brutal offensive performance Monday night. But is he to blame entirely, of course not.
The dropped balls saga continued today as there were a number of them by JuJu Smith-Schuster, Diontae Johnson, and Eric Ebron. The three accounted for seven dropped balls that could have extended the Steelers offensive possessions. These passes weren’t even 50/50 balls or jump balls, they were just routine catches that were right in their hands.
The run game was once again non-existent. Steelers running backs combined for 14 attempts going for 21 yards, an average of 1.5 yards per carry. The Steelers worst ground game performance all season.
Yes, they were missing James Conner but this is no excuse. Benny Snell and Anthony McFarland should have done a better job finding holes. Those two aren’t solely to blame as the offensive line didn’t do a great job of blocking and creating holes. They once again ran the ball out of the shotgun formation and historically this season they have not run the ball well when in shotgun formation.
Fichtner is partially to blame for the run game. Having Big Ben attempt 53 passes is a little overboard. I’m fine with a heavy passing offense, as the Steelers have done all year, but you can’t run the ball 14 times and expect to keep the defense honest.
Where Randy Fichtner went wrong
The main area where Fichtner went wrong was not adjusting to the defense. Washington didn’t blitz once until the second half. They had a great game plan on the defensive side of the ball, rush four, and keep everyone else back in coverage. Washington’s front four were instructed to deflect passes instead of trying to get to Big Ben. They still tried to sack Ben but they watched his eyes and waited for his arm to go back then they tried to jump and deflect passes. Hats off to Washington’s defense as they shut down Pittsburgh’s offense the entire second half.
Fichtner should have seen that they were only rushing four all game and told Ben that he didn’t need to get rid of the ball as quickly. This would’ve given the receivers more time to run their routes and a higher chance to get open. As we know, toward the end of games, Ben will call plays on the fly and I love it when he does this. He sees trends the defense is running and draws up routes where he thinks there will be open space.
At the end of the day, it’s not all Fichtners fault. Yes, had he made changes the game could have turned out differently but we just need to move on. A loss was coming eventually and we just need to put it behind us and focus on Buffalo.