At the beginning of the season, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense managed to find some momentum. They produced good performances against the New York Jets, Minnesota Vikings, and Cincinnati Bengals. However, it’s been a bit of a slog since then for Arthur Smith’s unit.
Without Aaron Rodgers on Sunday against Chicago, the Steelers were a little shorthanded offensively. And while they were able to score three touchdowns of their own, there just wasn’t enough from the unit to get into range for a potential game-tying field goal. To former Steeler James Harrison, it’s beyond frustrating.
“The offense is trash. I’m seeing Mason Rudolph getting the same numbers as Aaron Rodgers. So you’re telling me that these two quarterbacks have the same talent? Hell no. So that means the offensive scheme is trash. The coordinator is trash. The starting linebackers for them [Bears] had a total of 60 snaps under their belt. None of their starting linebackers [were] there,” Harrison said Monday on his Deebo & Joe podcast. “You telling me we got to run misdirection, a bunch of motion plays to confuse them because we can’t just run the ball down their throat?”
When Mason Rudolph came in for the second half last week, he was efficient, but the game plan was certainly a safe one. He took one or two deep shots, but mostly looked underneath for Kenneth Gainwell and Darnell Washington. That worked against a Cincinnati defense with a young linebacker core.
Yet, against probably the most depleted linebacker room on Sunday, that success wasn’t there. The Steelers often looked for those same underneath routes, but the Bears were much better at swallowing them up. In fact, Harrison thinks the Steelers looked for those routes too much.
“We knew the offense was what it was, bro. Mason Rudolph went what, 24 of 31? Oh, that’s great. Six passes [were] behind the line of scrimmage, bro,” Harrison said. “You telling me this ain’t got nothing to do with coaching?”
One thing we know well about the Steelers is their lack of aggressiveness over the middle of the field. Considering the state of the Bears’ defense this week, that’s a spot that absolutely should have been attacked more. The Steelers have three tight ends who can all get open over the middle, and against a horribly injured linebacker core, they made no real effort to do so. It makes sense to stay away from a talented safety like Kevin Byard, but still, the prayer balls down the sidelines won’t elevate this offense.
But that blame doesn’t solely belong to Smith. The Steelers’ hesitancy over the middle existed before he got here. Regardless of who the quarterback or the offensive coordinator is, the problem doesn’t go away. Yet, in general, Arthur Smith’s offense is just struggling to put complete games together.
