So does anyone else think.......

The Steelers may be in contention for home field advantage throughout the playoffs (whatever that means in 2020) BUT will have a difficult time against the better teams because

WE HAVE NO RUNNING GAME.

In a game like today with wind conditions being what they were i needed to see a Running Back who is demanding he gets 20 to 25 carries because HE knows HE will be the focal point on offense. The Running back should embrace that responsibility and have a look in his demeanor thats tells the defense "yes we're running it today boys but there's nothing you're going to be able to do to stop me". So far I have not seen that from Connor. If he wills himself to 4 to 5 yards per carry, the team will have no choice but to ride him. Unfortunately i don't believe in Conor and im not sure what you guys are seeing or management but to me this is our biggest deficiency at the moment.
I believe we should have secured a veteran RB for the 2nd half of the season and im afraid it will bite us down the road.....thoughts?
I believe Conor today was 13 for 36 or some piss poor production number.

 

9-0, Lovin it!!!!!

 

This honestly has the feel of a team having a magical regular season possibly finishing 14-2 and getting bounced early in the playoffs

 

No i don't think that, "fans" like you are an absolute joke enjoy another win 9-0 with a totally dominating win.

 

If it was so dominant then why did we rush for less than 60 yards in a double digit lead win?

Why are we not able to rush for a 1st down on 3rd and 1 or 4th and 1.

It's not that I don't enjoy the record but I'm not so blind that I don't notice our deficiencies

 

You're right about one thing. The running game is nonexistant. If James Conner would stop being cute with his running and quit trying to rush around the edge he may actually make some gains. Right now as it stands running east and west is doing nothing for the running game.

 

Nothing wrong with pointing out where we have holes. I'm loving the ride, but the lack of a running game doesn't bode well for the playoffs. Maybe they can get it fixed, maybe they can't and will have to win throwing the ball. Don't think other teams don't have holes though. KC was pretty awful at stopping the run, and still is, and they won it all despite that. No team is perfect...except us so far!!

 

Wow, just sad

 

gotta beat Baltimore then talk to me about home field advantage.

 

Not really, they could lose to Baltimore and still finish 15-1, and be in contention for home field advantage.

 

Anything less then an appearance in the AFC Championship game at this point whether it’s here at Heinz Field or in Kansas City would be a complete and total failure. This team has to at least get to that game and I’ll be very surprised at this point if they don’t.

 

Who the Hell is Conor?

 

I guess you considered that a close game?

 

Some of the run problems are Conner, some are the o-line. I don't want to see him running wide, he doesn't have the speed for it. However, it's pretty tough when there isn't much daylight. I like Dotson as a run blocker, he just crushes everything in front of him. I also think VMac being out hurt the run game somewhat today. I'm of the opinion their struggles are correctable. They ran pretty well early in the year.

 

They already beat Baltimore

 

I fail to understand why they ride a RB who is getting 2 or 3 yds a carry. At least give Snell a few reps when it was obvious Conner wasn't getting the job done. Too many jukes and hesitation moves then trying to bounce it wide for a 3 yd loss.
At least Snell just puts his head down and goes straight ahead. The running game needs to be fixed.

Other then that Ben was on his game, spreading the ball around and the defense played another great game. One thing I really like on defense is the amount of snaps all the young guys are getting.

 

They have the horses needed to play with but the line isn't doing much road grading either... Very correctable though, hope they do it as well. One week at a time! playoffs and seeding come in to effect after the cumulative weeks work. Cold ball is coming would be nice to shore up the straight forward run game as the misdirection stuff is getting pretty predictable without a real threat of an established handoff.

 

The Bengals were loading the line to take away the run (and probably the quick passes).
You take what the defense will give you.
Ben and the offense took it for 36 points.
Worry about the run game when the opposing team is trying to take away the deeper passes.

 

It will be too late at that point.

 

Roulette. There will ALWAYS be those people that take ten dollars and bet five on red and five on black. We have about a dozen in this forum.

 

Because we have a good defense, I doubt we would get bounced early in the playoffs. The main threat is KC. If we go through the playoffs and don`t even have to play KC on the way to the Super Bowl, you will know for sure we are the team of destiny.

 

You're almost guaranteed to get 44% of your money back!

 

Listen to post game comments please people the Bengals were determined to take away the run they stacked the box and run blitzed on 1st down. Please stop with the we can’t run crap this isn’t 1976 and Franco and Rocky aren’t in the backfield. Play to the Teams strengths which means throwing the football, when they drop men out of the box to stop the pass, run the ball it is a numbers game.

for everyone else on this board a FB is for the 80-90’s offense and not 2020. They are good for short yardage, goal line and kick off and punt coverage and not every down on offense and you sure as hell don’t build your offense around one.

 

I feel overly confident and have little confidence in this team, all at the same time lol I do think the defense being a takeaway machine coupled with 5 legitimate offensive weapons helps.