Things won’t get any easier for Steelers RB Najee Harris against Bengals

Najee Harris could be a spectacular player, but here’s why things won’t be getting any easier for the Steelers running back this week against the Bengals. 

When the Steelers selected a running back in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft, they expected the run game to improve drastically this year. Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case.

In fact, just the opposite has happened. In 2020, Pittsburgh opened the season with much better rushing performances than what we have seen so far in 2021. Over the first two games of last season, a backfield led by Benny Snell and James Conner carried the ball 52 times for 250 yards and averaged 4.8 yards per carry, according to Pro Football Reference. In the same amount of games this year, Najee Harris and the Steelers offense has managed just 35 carries for 114 yards (3.2 per carry).

If you are thinking that Week 3 is the time that the running game will finally start to come together for Pittsburgh, you may not want to hold your breath. The Cincinnati Bengals have rush defense that is better than you might think.

Steelers running game could struggle vs Bengals

Though we are only two games into the 2021 season, Cincinnati’s defensive line is doing its job and their free-agent investments like D.J. Reader and Larry Ogunjobi are already starting to pay dividends.

In Week 1 against the Minnesota Vikings, the Bengals easily held Pro Bowl running back Dalvin Cook in check with just 20 carries for 61 yards (3.1 per carry). This limited what the Vikings were able to do offensively and allowed the Bengals to stay in the game with a balanced offense.

Last week against the Chicago Bears, the Bengals weren’t able to pull away the victory due to losing the turnover battle, but they held the entire team to just 34 carries for 123 yards (3.6 per carry). This was against a competent running game with David Montgomery and a mobile quarterback in Justin Fields who rushed 10 times.

The fact that the Steelers are already having major issues running the ball to do inconsistent offensive line play is a big factor in and of itself. However, with how stout the Bengals defensive line has been against the run, there isn’t much reason to believe that this will be the week that Najee Harris finds success on the ground.

If this proves to be the case, the Steelers will look to get Harris more involved in the passing game – an area where he was excellent this past week against the Raiders. However, in order to avoid being unbalanced, Pittsburgh needs to show the ability to run the ball early and often against a surprisingly strong Bengals defense.

The Steelers could be without many of their starters this week, which could alter the game plan. However, there’s no doubt this team has made it a point of emphasis to try to run the ball better. I do think Pittsburgh gets better in this department as the season goes on, but probably not against the Bengals this week.