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Steelers quarterback Devlin Hodges hands off to running back Benny Snell against the Browns in the first quarter Sunday, Dec. 1, 2019, at Heinz Field.
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The Steelers proved it's not always easy to alter your offense on the fly

Matt Freed/Post-Gazette

The Steelers proved it's not always easy to alter your offense on the fly

In 2018, the Ravens and Patriots morphed from pass-first to run-first attacks. Why couldn't the Steelers do the same in 2019?

In the middle of last season, Baltimore coach John Harbaugh was close to getting fired. The Ravens were 4-5 after a home loss to the Steelers, and rumors swirled around his job security.

It was then that Harbaugh made the decision to bench Super Bowl-winning quarterback Joe Flacco in favor of rookie Lamar Jackson. In doing so, he would have to entirely change his offense. With Flacco, an 11-year pro, the Ravens leaned on the passing game. But with Jackson under center, the Ravens would have to become a team that leaned on the run.

The decision paid off handsomely. The Ravens won six of their final seven games, overtook the Steelers for the AFC North title and advanced to the playoffs.

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With Jackson at quarterback full-time this season — and directing an offense that was tweaked even more toward the run over the offseason — the Ravens are the No. 1 seed in the AFC and heavy favorites to win the Super Bowl.

Mike Tomlin answers questions during his weekly press conference, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2019, at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, Pittsburgh. (Peter Diana/Post-Gazette)
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“We felt like we had the right kind of linemen,” Harbaugh said Tuesday morning. “It starts with Marshall Yanda. He’s really good at those blocking schemes we run. And we did build toward that with the type of linemen we put in there. We had some young guys like Matt Skura and Patrick Mekari and Bradley Bozeman. They were younger and kind of fit with what we wanted to do with the run game.”

The Ravens aren’t the only team that has changed its offensive course in the middle of the season and succeeded. The Patriots morphed from a passing team to a running team late last season and in the playoffs en route to their sixth Super Bowl championship.

All of which begs the question: Why haven’t the Steelers been able to change their offensive identity in the middle of this season?

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The Steelers are a team that’s built to pass. They constructed their roster around Ben Roethlisberger.

There was nothing wrong with that when Roethlisberger was healthy. But the roster without him has failed to adapt. Unlike the Ravens and the Patriots last season, the Steelers haven’t been able to morph into a running team.

In fact, they have no offensive identity whatsoever. They’ve miraculously stayed in playoff contention into the final weekend of the season by piecing together an offense with duct tape and rubber bands on a week-to-week basis.

The Steelers enter the regular-season finale 26th in the NFL in rushing. They are 31st in passing offense.

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So why haven’t they been able to morph into a running team, or at the very least lean on their running game more in this season of constant quarterback change?

“Because we’ve had young quarterbacks and young wideouts and people pack the box,” Mike Tomlin said. “And we can perform better, so all of the above.”

Jackson is a generational type of player who creates his own magic in the Ravens running game. His skill set is unique and cannot be ignored when the Ravens running game is analyzed. It’s unlike any other in the league because of his talents. And the Patriots can rely on six-time Super-Bowl winning quarterback Tom Brady to read defenses and get his offense into better plays even with a receiving corps this season that is young and inexperienced.

But there are other teams with young and/or inexperienced quarterbacks whose running games have thrived this season.

The Colts and Titans have each played two quarterbacks due to injuries or ineffectiveness, and they’re among the top running teams in the league. The Colts are fourth in the league, averaging 133 yards per game, while the Titans are sixth, averaging 132 yards per game.

The Colts played with Jacoby Brissett and Brian Hoyer at quarterback. The Titans played with Marcus Mariota and Ryan Tannehill. None of the four are considered franchise quarterbacks. All four have more experience than the young Steelers quarterbacks, but it would be a stretch to call them experienced starters or supremely talented.

The Titans will make the playoffs if they can beat the Texans on Sunday. And the Colts can finish with an 8-8 record.

Tomlin is right about the young quarterbacks and receivers and the way defensive coordinators game plan against his team. But it’s also true the Steelers were unprepared to pivot to a running offense this season. That’s one criticism the coaching staff and front office can’t deny.

Unlike the Ravens, they don’t have young offensive linemen ready to excel as run blockers. And they didn’t have a scheme change in mind after Roethlisberger was injured. The offense became scaled back once Roethlisberger was placed on injured reserve, but it didn’t change.

If there is anything the Steelers can learn from this season, even if they do make the playoffs, it’s in their ability to morph into something other than an offense that’s built to pass.

It didn’t happen this season, and it could end up costing them a playoff berth.

Ray Fittipaldo: rfittipaldo@post-gazette.com and Twitter @rayfitt1.

First Published: December 24, 2019, 7:58 p.m.

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