Biggest takeaways from Steelers win vs Saints aren’t all encouraging
By Tommy Jaggi
The Pittsburgh Steelers pulled off a home win in Week 10, but the biggest takeaways from their third victory aren’t necessarily encouraging.
I’ve been saying all week that if the Pittsburgh Steelers are to win against a team like the New Orleans Saints, I want it to be a convincing display of dominance… It was not. While I did predict that Mike Tomlin’s team would emerge victorious this week, I worried that this would not be the encouraging performance we would have hoped for. Sadly, this seems to be the case.
Don’t get me wrong; there are plenty of positives to take from this game and respectable performances that can be recognized. However, the biggest and most important takeaways more or less show that this is the same team we have seen all year. Here are my biggest takeaways from the Steelers vs Saints in Week 10:
Steelers passing offense remains a huge problem
With two weeks to prepare against a banged-up Saints team coming off a Monday night loss, I really was hoping to see more from Kenny Pickett and Pittsburgh’s passing offense. Unfortunately, it was the same old story here. A dull gameplan falls on offensive coordinator, Matt Canada, but there were plenty of missed opportunities from Pickett and not enough big-time throws.
Apart from a 36-yard pass to Diontae Johnson down the sideline in the second half, Pickett’s passing chart was pretty unspectacular. Even with this completion against a depleted secondary, the rookie QB managed just 6.6 yards per pass attempt on the afternoon. If we factor in the 37 yards lost on sacks in this contest, the Steelers mustered up just 4.5 yards per pass play in Week 10, via ESPN stats. This simply won’t be enough to get the job done against more formidable opponents.
Steelers aren’t scoring enough points
This issue can be directly attributed to my first takeaway. Without a successful passing game, it’s remarkably difficult to point up consistent points. Despite a few missed opportunities on botched field goals, the results remain the same: the Steelers can’t seem to put up more than 20 offensive points in a game.
There really wasn’t much excuse either. The Steelers dominated the time of possession battle with 38:56 to 21:04. they also created three total takeaways — two from interceptions and one from a turnover on downs. Additionally, Pittsburgh ran for over 200 yards on 5.0 yards per carry.
Yet none of these factors seemed to be enough to get them over the 20-point hump. This has to change, as Pittsburgh’s scoring offense remains one of the worst in the league entering Week 11.
T.J. Watt is an absolute X-Factor
Perhaps the most encouraging thing to note from the Steelers vs Saints game is that T.J. Watt is a dominant football player (but we already knew that). This was just confirmation that — even coming off an injury — Watt is as imposing as ever.
This wasn’t an easy matchup either, as Watt was asked to go against one of the better right tackles in the league, Ryan Ramczyk, and was constantly double-teamed. Though he didn’t put up gaudy numbers, Watt was still disruptive, and the attention he drew allowed Alex Highsmith and others to feed. Thanks to Watt, the Steelers defense allowed just 4.1 yards per play against New Orleans and surrendered just 10 points.
Najee Harris and the running game showed great improvement
I wouldn’t be too quick to think that the Pittsburgh Steelers suddenly solved all of their rushing woes; however, this was certainly the most impressive rushing performance we have seen in quite some time. Najee Harris recorded 99 yards on 20 attempts, while the team as a whole managed a whopping 217 yards and 2 scores on 5.0 yards per carry.
This was a tremendous effort all around, and the offensive line deserves credit for creating some massive lanes in this contest. The question now becomes: is this newfound rushing attack sustainable for the Steelers?
I was encouraged by what I saw in Pittsburgh’s running game and the defense. Unfortunately, if the passing game doesn’t improve and if the Steelers don’t start putting up more points, they are still going to struggle mightily against quality opponents.