The Pittsburgh Steelers might be on a short win streak, but they still have a lot of work to do on offense — specifically in the passing game.
I don’t want to take anything away from Pittsburgh’s performance in Week 8. In a must-win matchup against a quality divisional rival, the Steelers walked into Cleveland and showed that they still own the Browns.
Defensively, Keith Butler’s team was excellent. T.J. Watt looked like he’s finally fully healthy from the groin injury he suffered early in the season, and the defensive line was firing on all cylinders. In addition, Minkah Fitzpatrick had a quality game and the secondary did a great job keeping Baker Mayfield and company in check.
Unfortunately, I do have a beef with the offensive side of the football, and no Steelers fan should be feeling confident in the offense after the performance we just saw.
Despite the defense putting the team in excellent position throughout the game, Pittsburgh’s offense was able to muster up just 15 points. The running game really wasn’t an issue in this one, and the Steelers were able to pound the rock for 115 yards and a score. In fact, the Steelers have ran for well over 100 yards in each of their last three contests during their win streak.
However, the passing game has been a different story. Though Ben Roethlisberger was able to salvage his statistical production in the box score with a 50-yard catch-and-run from Diontae Johnson late in the game (47 of which came after the catch), this was really another unspectacular performance from our aging quarterback and Pittsburgh’s passing offense.
What Steelers must do to improve the passing game
Yes, the Steelers did come away with the win in the end, but 15 points are really unacceptable for a team hoping to compete this year. With that performance, Mike Tomlin’s team is scoring just 18.9 points per game on the season (even fewer if you don’t count their special teams touchdown in Week 1).
I don’t want to put this all on Big Ben in Week 8. The offensive line had some really rough pass sets at times and I thought he did a pretty good job under pressure. However, he certainly deserves a good deal of blame for the team’s inability to put points on the board.
Passing down the field has been the issue all season, and it was evident that this was a struggle in Week 8. According to Next Gen Stats, Roethlisberger completed just 6 of 15 passes that traveled at least 10 air yards this week, and he only attempted 3 passes beyond 15 yards — all 3 of which fell incomplete.
When the ball comes out of his hands so quickly and everything is short, it allows defenders to play closer to the line of scrimmage as they dare Ben to beat them down the field. In addition to throwing a touchdown to Pat Freiermuth, Roethlisberger made an awful decision on a throw to Diontae Johnson in triple coverage that should have been picked and likely taken to the house the other way.
On top of this, the Steelers were just 4 of 13 on third down conversions when passing the ball against Cleveland in Week 8. All of this resulted in just a 37.8 QBR for the Steelers quarterback against the Browns, via ESPN.
In addition to Ben’s struggles down the field, the wide receivers may not be doing enough to help. While Freiermuth and Johnson have been impressive, perhaps there isn’t enough separation down the field from players like Chase Claypool and James Washington.
Whatever the case, the Steelers need to get their act together on offense soon, as this team has scored just 19.1 points per game in their last 13 regular-season games dating back to 2020. A win streak is nice, but it won’t mean anything if the passing game doesn’t get their act together.