Solid Take: Steelers must be who they are, not who they want to be.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/60...ce=dailyemail&campaign=601983&userId=11964319

Saturday night was a great example of the Steelers refusing to acknowledge they are not the type of offensive team they want to be. They can't just line up with three tight ends and pound away with the running game. They simply aren't good enough at it. They aren't the sort of team that should be going for it on fourth-and-one. They aren't good enough at it.

They ran it on 20 of their first 32 plays against a defense Russell Wilson carved up earlier in the season. Why? They ran on every first down except their two-minute drill until late in the game. Why? That approach wasn't working. They aren't that team. The line just isn't good enough to play that way. It is one reason Warren has looked more effective lately. They don't use him as much in those three-tight end sets, which aren't effective, though he and Harris have both had their struggles running on first and second down.

The Ravens' strength is their run defense. Trying to line up and shove it down their throats isn't going to work. The Steelers need to know that going into Saturday night's playoff game or it will be another one-and-done. Yes, it is though to rely on Wilson and Pickens to play well, which they will have to do if they open up the offense, but that is the only path to victory Saturday night.

Below is the text of the article for those without a subscription to The Athletic. I would get one if you don't. It is cheap and they have a lot of good material about the Steelers and sports in general.

The Steelers aren’t who they think they are. They must realize it before it’s too late


By Mike DeFabo
PITTSBURGH — To understand what unfolded Saturday night in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ regular-season finale at Acrisure Stadium, you have to start nearly 700 miles south and four months ago in Atlanta.

In Week 1 against the Falcons, coach Mike Tomlin set the standard for the season when he passed up a chance to kick a field goal that could have extended Pittsburgh’s lead to eight points midway through the fourth quarter. Instead, he opted to go for it on fourth-and-1 from the 6-yard line. Stuffed for no gain, the Steelers turned the ball over on downs but still escaped with a win thanks to six Chris Boswell field goals.


“We live that life,” Tomlin said at the time, insisting that he’d continue to put his faith in his offensive line and the running game as the season continued.

Now here we are in Week 18. After a season to build their identity, coach up their players and analyze the metrics, the Steelers faced third-and-1 from their 37-yard line with 49 seconds remaining in the first half against the Cincinnati Bengals. On a QB sneak, Russell Wilson’s elbow landed short of the line to gain.

Tomlin faced two choices on fourth down:

Option A: Punt and give Joe Burrow around 40 seconds to drive the length of the field.
Option B: Go for it, with no guarantee that converting the first down would lead to points.
Tomlin chose to play the possession down the same way he did in Week 1. The result was the same. The Bengals blew up the play, stopping running back Jaylen Warren short. By turning the ball over, Tomlin essentially handed the Bengals a field goal (Cincinnati nearly turned it into a touchdown, but Ja’Marr Chase couldn’t corral a pass on third-and-goal from the 9).

“I like to be aggressive in those moments,” Tomlin said after the game. “If you can’t get a yard, you don’t deserve to win.”

And they didn’t. In a 19-17 loss to the Bengals, those three points could be viewed as the difference.

As you zoom out, that moment helps — as much as anything else — to summarize where the Steelers (10-7) stand going into the playoffs with the stench of a four-game losing streak lingering and the early season optimism nothing more than a distant memory. A team that once had a two-game lead over the Baltimore Ravens with the inside track to win the AFC North has now squandered that opportunity. It also likely blew the opportunity to open the playoffs against the suspect No. 4-seeded Houston Texans. If the Los Angeles Chargers take care of business against the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday, the Steelers will visit No. 3-seeded Baltimore as the No. 6 seed.

They will do so limping into the playoffs with serious questions about who they are and what they actually do well.

When the Steelers lost three games in 11 days to the Philadelphia Eagles, Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs, the most optimistic way to view the skid was to consider the caliber of competition. All three teams have a legitimate shot to win the Super Bowl.

Well, it only seems fair to consider the caliber of competition now, right? The Bengals’ defense is one of the worst in the league. It entered the game allowing the fourth-most points (26.1) and sixth-most yards per game (358). The first time he played this defense in Week 13, Wilson posted the second-highest passing output (414 yards) of his entire career, which has spanned 13 years and 199 starts. Pittsburgh averaged 7.9 yards per play, its best in a game since 2016.

For an offense that’s been losing altitude over the last month, Saturday night was a prime chance to turn things around and build momentum entering the postseason. Instead, it was arguably its worst offensive performance of the season, as the Steelers posted their second-fewest total yards (193) and a season-low 3.3 yards per play, tied for 10th-worst by any NFL team in a game all season.

After the game, Wilson said the best thing the Steelers can do is forget about the loss.

“We’ve got to have amnesia going into (the playoffs),” he said. “Just win the next play. Just win the next game. We’ve got to have the best week we can possibly have this week.”

It seems the Steelers might already have amnesia, as they must have completely forgotten what worked the first time they played the Bengals this season. Rather than coming out throwing like they did in a 44-point outburst in Week 13, they chose to rely on old-school ground-and-pound. Star receiver George Pickens was targeted six times, committed three drops and recorded just one catch for 0 yards.

Through three quarters, the Steelers ran the ball 20 times for 58 yards (2.9 average) and threw it just 12 times (plus two sacks) for 51 yards, despite trailing from the opening possession. On first and second downs, they ran 17 times against eight passes.

“I think that was our game plan kind of going into it,” Wilson said. “Just trying to establish our physical nature and everything else.”

Therein lies the problem: The Steelers know exactly what brand of football they want to play. Stifle opponents with great defense and churn up yards with a physical rushing attack. That’s the style of football that helps teams win games in the playoffs, or so they’ve been preaching.

Well, now it’s playoff time. If this 17-game sample size has proven anything, it’s this: There’s a serious disconnect between what the Steelers want to be … and what they actually are.

Under first-year offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, Pittsburgh has run the ball 533 times. Only the Philadelphia Eagles (596) and the Ravens (544) have run the ball more. But just because a team runs the ball a lot doesn’t mean it does it well. The Ravens run a lot because they’re great at it, averaging a league-best 5.8 yards per carry. The Eagles are at 5.0 yards per carry, fourth-best. The Steelers? They’re seventh-worst (4.1). The frequency and lack of efficiency leave them ranked third-worst total rushing EPA (-78.5).

Still, after 17 weeks, the Steelers seem to believe they have the kind of offense that can line up, tell you they’re running the ball and do it anyway. In no place is that more apparent than on first down and short-yardage situations — two areas where the Steelers fell short on Saturday.

On first downs this season, Pittsburgh ranks last in yards per play (4.5) while ranking third in run frequency (61.3 percent). A team that wants to “live that life” has converted 38.9 percent of its fourth downs, the fourth-lowest percentage in the league. On fourth-and-1, the Steelers are also fifth-worst with a success rate of 54.5 percent.

“We formulated a plan that we thought was appropriate for this environment and in this game this week,” Tomlin said. “It didn’t work out the way we would like.”

When the Steelers were at their best this season, they were a complementary football team. When one side of the ball struggled, the other bailed them out. To beat the Eagles, Ravens or Chiefs, the Steelers needed both sides to play their best games. Instead, over the past month, both sides have produced their worst games of the season — sometimes simultaneously.

Now, if they’re going to avoid a winless postseason for the eighth consecutive year under Tomlin, the Steelers need to rediscover that formula in a hurry.

“The best thing we can do is get ready for the playoffs,” Wilson said. “It’s a new season. That’s the only thing that really matters anymore at this point. The reality is, winning that game would have helped us in some form or fashion. But at the end of the day, when you go into the playoffs, everybody is 0-0 and you’ve got to beat everybody anyway. That’s got to be our focus right now.”

Maybe it really is a new season, like Wilson says. But unless the Steelers can win a playoff game, it’s going to feel like same old, same old from a team that has too often fizzled down the stretch and fallen flat in the playoffs.

 

Is there an audio book version of that post?

 

There are apps for that.

 

Tomlin......just is not bright enough to understand this.

HOW LONG must we keep saying this?

 

I would open up with Fields at QB Harris as the RB and Warren as 1 of the Wings I would mix in TE'S and WRS and Wilson as the other Wing .. Run down hill use the PA and use trick plays as we can pitch or swing to Wilson for all those HB/ Wing pass plays use Warren in space as a check down and get our big play WR outside in space ..We ran a lot of this type Offense the great thing is its designed for poor OL play..

We actually called it a hide the ball offense as each play has multiple attacks from the same looks...Designed to create space and confusion..

I have multiple playbooks of this and I see more and more Teams use a lot of it in the NFL.. IMO this type of O would be our best cahnce to move the ball consitantly with our current players..

 

I've wanted to see this type of thing for a while. Put Russ AND Fields in at the same time. Even if you're not going to go to Fields, make the defense think for a change rather than "Oh yeah, Fields is in, he's gonna run". We need more inventive schemes, ours just aren't competitive at higher levels.

 

One stat I heard during the game is the Steelers have zero TDs on their opening drives this season.

 

I'd be surprised if they had any first downs from their opening drives

 

I could be wrong, but I can't remember seeing Fields on the field for a few games now.

I hold on to the hope that this is all some kind of Todd Haley-esque masterplan in deceiving the opposition by playing as vanilla aspossible once we'd qualified for the play offs.

 

Stubborn is as stubborn does.

And here we go right back to why Tomlin prioritises Slowee over Warren, because in his mind this was how we were going to win right back to ST, and he's going to be proven right at all costs. And all this is nothing new the refusal to adapt and change because of some BS clarion call "This is who we are"...a refusal to admit you could be wrong more like it. Nothjing chnages until there's absolutey no other option, see MC and see Pressely Harvin, only when the current state of affiars becomes utterly untenable do he and the Steelers chnmage anything.

We're hostage to an ego that is out of control, this franchise has late Al Davis era written all over it if we don't change it up soon.

The game has passed MT and this organization by.

 

Fields was inactive for a few games due to injury. I don't think he got in the game at all against the Bengals.

 

I'm not saying you don't run at all, but how many possessions did they waste Saturday night slamming Harris or Warren into the line twice, then throwing on third down? They need to find a balance, and that includes throwing on some first downs. Maybe don't make it a moon ball, either. Run some slants. Attack the middle of the field. The Ravens think they have the passing game pegged. Do something different or we will just see more of the same results.

 

It’s the whole “impose our will” bs when the team isn’t equipped to execute it. We don’t have jerome bettis and his line in their prime.

 

If they don't know what to do against teams that they play twice a yr, then there's a serious problem brewing

 

That is especially true against the Ravens, who have one of the league's best run defenses. It will be even more difficult Saturday because McCormick has a broken hand. He will either miss the game or he will be limited.

 

If they have the same game plan against the Ravens as we did against the Bengals, we are in deep trouble. Pass to open up the run some. Short to middle passes will work best. Stay away from 3rd and long as they will blitz from anywhere. Screens should work but we are not good at it.

 

I'm not sure screens will work all that well. The Ravens are good at getting Smith and Hamilton free to make plays. They are too athletic and too smart for screens to work. Also, as you said, the Steelers aren't good at screens.

 

Yes, we are not good at screens the way we run them, you need more miss-direction type of screens, we don't seem to have them in our playbook, and yes Smith is probably the best middle linebacker in the league great on straight screens, that's why you need more miss-direction screens where everything goes one way except for a few linemen the set the screen up in the opposite direction. The Lions and Chiefs do this very well.

 

Agreed. Watching the schematic things the Chiefs and Lions do drives me crazy because the Steelers haven't had that sort of tactical advantage in a long time. Seriously, who was the last innovative and creative offensive coordinator for the Steelers? Arians?