When the Pittsburgh Steelers had Benrothlisberger at his high ability, they wanted to throw football throughout the garden. Apart from the strange Tommy gun attacks, they rarely deviate from the original spirit otherwise. In the post-Roeslisberger era, they are trying to regain that mindset. The only problem is that they have not yet secured personnel, schemes, or capitalization capabilities.
That’s at least Gerry Dulac’s diagnosis, and he believes the Steelers must identify the issue earlier than they’re late. Because their initial mentality only leads them to hit the walls multiple times. And it’s starting to give people headaches.
“They make that execution-oriented mentality a better junk.” Dulac said in a recent chat session. About the Steelers. “It’s okay to be able to run the ball, but it’s better if there’s someone who can throw the ball. Bill Cowher: Throw early and run late.”
During the 2024 season, the Steelers were one of a handful of teams to run the ball more than pass. They recorded 533 rushing attempts against 499 passing attempts. Certainly, it does not describe plays designed as sacks or scrambles or other runs. But they finished the season with a rushing attempt at fourth, but also out of the top 10 for the yard. They also ranked 19th in rushing for a touchdown and 25th in every attempt.
It’s fair to question whether the Steelers are really a “running team” or a team that runs a lot. The results suggest that they are not very good at them. Certainly, they had a stretch they had successful, and sometimes by the fourth quarter the attrition paid off. But too often, they did too much work for too little production.
“1) Stop thinking you’re the first team because it’s not enough for you to do that. Chat. Teams like the Eagles who made the rush attempt at 621 this season should make it work You can, but it’s still an outlier. And the Steelers have nothing to show that they have an exceptional quality of outliers.
Of course, when you don’t have a franchise quarterback, you need to try to run more. When I started this piece, the Steelers are willing to put the ball in the air if there’s anything they need to do that. But they seem to be overcompensating in the wrong direction at this point.
Let’s clarify something here. Overall, the Steelers were a poor running team last year. They almost always started slowly, and often ended slowly. Despite making four rush attempts, they contributed the fourth most expected point to runplay. According to the profile football reference, they finished the season with a forecast point of minus 30.21 from the run game.
Only the Cowboys, Dolphins and Raiders have gotten worse. More than half of the league became negative, but only four teams, including the Steelers, were negative and had over 30 points. Perhaps a healthy offensive line will help next season. But if they want to be the run first team, they can’t continue doing the same thing over and over.
