Well, the Steelers 2023 'Cinderella' story has come to an inglorious ending. The playoff loss to the Buffalo Bills probably did not come as a huge surprise but the loss still stings, nonetheless. After having lost three consecutive games, then going on a run to win three straight to get into the 'tournament', as Mike Tomlin would say, there was hope.
There was hope that, despite not having T.J. Watt available due to an injury, we would rally around the available players, that the coaches would put everyone in a position to succeed, and that we would emerge victorious. Alas, it was not to be. Instead, we fizzled late in the game and the rest, as they say, is history.
Let's see what the playoff loss could mean for the 2024 season on the offensive side of the ball.
The Steelers offensive scheme is in need of a major overhaul
To say that the Steelers offensive scheme is in need of a major overhaul would be an understatement. According to ESPN, the offense finished with the twenty-fifth overall ranking in terms of total yards per game. That's not very good.
Against the Bills, the offense managed to gain three hundred and twenty-four yards on sixty-three plays. While that was certainly not terrible, we only managed to score seventeen points. The inability to score more points than our opponents had been a problem all season long.
The offense finished the 2023 regular season with the twenty-eighth ranking in terms of average points per game. That's not good either. Scoring just about eighteen points per game generally does not lead to sustained success.
Therein lay the major issue with the Steelers 2023 offense. We simply could not generate enough points consistently to make things easy, so to speak. To put it into perspective, we scored thirty points only twice. We scored ten points or less in five games.
So how does the Steelers offense generate more points in the 2024 season? If I knew the answer to that question, I could become the offensive coordinator but I will offer this observation. I would argue that the best scheme we ever had was the Erhardt-Perkins scheme.
If you watch or watched Steelers games from 1992 through 1995 when Ron Erhardt was the offensive coordinator, you will notice something that we tried to resurrect during the 2023 season. One of the axioms of the Erhardt-Perkins scheme is establishing the run to set up the pass.
While we finished the 2023 season with the thirteenth ranking in average rush yards per game, it was a situation where it was too little, too late. Considering we finished with the twenty-fifth ranking in passing yards per game, the run game and pass game did not complement each other.
If we truly want to become an offense that opposing defenses will fear, we must overhaul our scheme. if we don't, we may end up in a perpetual loop of playing well enough to make the playoffs, but not playing well enough to get past the first round of the playoffs.
Let's see what the playoff loss could mean for the 2024 season on the defensive side of the ball.