3 reasons the Steelers will not win the Super Bowl this year

Rushing Yards

The NFL has seen a major shift to the passing game in recent years, causing offenses to become higher scoring and more efficient than ever before. That said, two of the past three Super Bowl winners have fielded successful backfields. The Eagles in 2017 had 1787 rushing yards combined from their running backs (this number excludes receiver and quarterback runs). The Patriots in 2018 had a combined 1866 rushing yards for the season.

The only anomaly to this group is the Chiefs, as they compiled 1283 rushing yards from their running backs. That said, they still maintained an electric offense due to the best quarterback in the league Patrick Mahomes commanding their offense. The Steelers don’t have that, as Ben Roethlisberger is certainly a fine quarterback, but he is not Mahomes.

Worse yet, the Steelers rushing attack has been abysmal this season. As of now, the unit has 1158 yards rushing from their running backs and the group is currently on pace to only amass 1424 yards on the year. That number is just below the Chiefs and well below the Patriots and Eagles, something that could limit the team moving forward. This isn’t to say the team needs to have a Derrick Henry like running back, but this entire unit needs to improve if they want to make a Super Bowl run.

Again, the Steelers are a pass-first team, something that is common now in the NFL. They can still move the ball, but they are treading into the one-dimensional range on offense. While the Chiefs were in a similar boat, they had a far better quarterback to bail them out. The team needs to get the ball moving on the ground to balance out their offense. If not, the Steelers could see an early dismissal from the playoffs instead of a Super Bowl win.