Already ravaged by injuries and positive COVID tests, the Steelers offense received another major blow on Thursday when leading receiver Diontae Johnson was placed on the COVID-19 list three days before the final game of the regular season in Baltimore.
Rookie center Kendrick Green, who returned to practice Wednesday after missing the Browns game with a calf injury, was also placed on the COVID list.
Couple that news with the in-game injuries left tackle Dan Moore and right guard Trai Turner suffered during the game, and the Steelers face the prospect of playing the Ravens with a patchwork lineup.
The offense already had been figuratively limping to the finish line. The passing game in particular has been a bad slump.
Ben Roethlisberger’s past three games look like the totals he used to post per quarter. He threw for 123 yards against the Browns, 159 against the Chiefs and 148 against the Titans. Those three games represent his three lowest passing games of the season.
To put a different and depressing twist on the matter: Roethlisberger threw for 430 yards in a game eight times during his career. It took him three games to get as many the past three weeks.
Roethlisberger, as he has for most of the season, doesn’t spend much time surveying the field and attempting to throw deep or even intermediate passes. Almost every pass he threw against the Browns was short, even when the Steelers faced third-and-long situations.
Offensive coordinator Matt Canada said the injuries and illnesses on the offensive line have played a role in the passing game’s struggles in recent weeks. John Leglue is the fourth player to start at left guard after Kevin Dotson, B.J. Finney and Joe Haeg preceded him. Add in J.C. Hassenauer making his first start at center against the Browns, and it’s easy to see why there isn’t a lot of confidence in the pass protection to hold up for longer attempts down the field.
“It’s a tough situation,” Canada said. “There is a fine balance there of trying to throw the ball down the field and not putting your linemen in a tough spot which ultimately puts 7 in a tough spot. We haven’t had the production at times we’d want. It’s a line we’re trying to work on.
“I don’t have a great answer. It’s a tough situation and you try to balance it as best you can so you can get some things down the field, create those plays. Our margin of error is fairly thin with that.”
Overlooked amid the fanfare of Roethlisberger’s final game at Heinz Field was the rather staggering note that he became the first quarterback to win a game with more than 40 passing attempts and fewer than 150 passing yards since quarterback starts were first tracked starting in 1950.
The previous 13 quarterbacks with those numbers were 0-13, according to Stats By STATS.
So how did the Steelers pull off a win with an impotent passing game? It helped that Najee Harris ran for a career-high 188 yards as the Steelers had by far their best game of the season on the ground.
Doing it again on Sunday will be more challenging. The Ravens, who like the Steelers need a win and some help to make the playoffs, are No. 1 in the league against the run.
“They’re the Number 1 team in the league stopping the run, so they’re not going to change anything,” Canada said. “They have a real good formula. We believe we have to run the football. It’s something we’ve tried to do. In some weeks we’ve been somewhat effective and other weeks we haven’t been. I’m not naive to the fact we’re going to play the Number 1 rush defense in the league.”
When the Steelers beat the Ravens at Heinz Field last month, they held the Steelers to 85 yards on 25 carries.
Ray Fittipaldo: rfittipaldo@post-gazette.com and Twitter @rayfitt1.
First Published: January 6, 2022, 5:01 p.m.
