From unstoppable to unwatchable. In a few short weeks the Steelers went from having one of the NFL’s best goal-line offenses to a level of ineptitude that had Steelers Nation hiding its eyes in horror on Monday afternoon.
That’s what happens when you have five cracks at the end zone from the 1-yard line and fail to score a touchdown, as the Steelers did against Washington.
There are many reasons for the decline in performance. Injuries that have thrust little-used reserves into the lineup. There have been costly missed assignments. And there have been some questionable personnel packages and play calls.
All are worth noting when citing the struggles. But when it comes down to it, offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner believes there is one issue that trumps the rest: physicality, or in the Steelers’ case, a lack of it.
Head coach Mike Tomlin lambasted his offense on the same issue on Tuesday, and Fichtner agrees his unit was pushed around in the past two games against Baltimore and Washington.
“There comes a time when that physicality has to be matched,” Fichtner said. “We have seen some pretty good front sevens. But we’ve seen good front sevens before and never felt like on first and 1 from the 1 you can’t get the ball in running the football.”
But that’s what it feels like now — and for good reason. Washington’s goal-line stand put the problem in the spotlight. But the Steelers began trending in the wrong direction five days earlier when they had a hard time putting away an undermanned Ravens team.
Goal-to-go situations are defined as opportunities from inside the opponent’s 10-yard line. The Steelers were inside the Ravens’ 10-yard line on four drives and only came away with one touchdown. Against Washington, they were 1 for 2.
It was a complete 180 degree turn for an offense that had its way with opposing defenses in those same situations for the first 10 games of the season. The Steelers converted 15 of their first 18 trips inside the opponent’s 10-yard line into touchdowns. During a seven-game stretch in the middle of the season, starting against Philadelphia and ending against Jacksonville, they converted 13 consecutive trips in goal-to-go situations into touchdowns.
Fichtner’s offense has been a lightning rod for criticism the past few days, and rightfully so. Ben Roethlisberger hasn’t been accurate with his passes, and when he has been, his receivers have dropped an inordinate number of them. The running game as a whole has been horrific, as evidenced by the backs gaining 21 yards on 14 carries against Washington.
But all of those issues would have been glossed over if the goal-line offense had executed better. Fichtner knows it, and he’s spent the better part of his week brainstorming ideas to stop the slump in Buffalo on Sunday night.
“We scratch our head every day and talk about it,” he said. “I know I can be more committed to running. Maybe it needed four runs to get it in from 1 as opposed to maybe trying to fool them. Sometimes it comes down to one man. Sometimes it comes down to just the runner.
“That’s been a point of emphasis for us over the last week and a half. That’s not who we want to be and who we aspire to be. We’ve been good in those situations. We’re capable of being good in those situations. The expectation is we have to be.”
The trick is doing it with personnel that’s not well-suited to carry out traditional goal-line offense. Fichtner said aloud Thursday morning what everyone already knew: The Steelers built their line to protect Roethlisberger, not to play smash-mouth football.
“If you’re going to get disappointed in the physicality of the line in the run game, then you have to look at the flip side and say, ‘Well from a pass-protection standpoint, they’re keeping the quarterback as clean as they possibly can, maybe at the highest level of anyone in the league,’” Fichtner said. “There is a slight tradeoff. If you want to say, structurally, we are built more like that, maybe we are, but that doesn’t mean we won’t keep working and trying to put ourselves in better position to establish the run.”
Fichtner’s running instincts might be right. Even though the Steelers are 29th in the NFL in rushing yards per game and tied for dead-last in rushing yards per attempt, they’re actually better running it in short-yardage situations than they are passing it.
On fourth and 1 this season, they are 6 for 11 — 5 for 8 running and 1 for 3 passing. On third and 1, they are 17 for 25 — 12 for 16 running and 5 for 9 passing.
The poor production in goal-line and short-yardage situations has had an adverse effect on the passing game, too.
“It puts a lot of pressure on the passing game when the running game isn’t there, just because there is a balance we try to have,” receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster said. “When one thing doesn’t work, we try to lean too much on the other. The defense can play the passing game perfect. The passing helps the run game, opening it up and spreading out the defensive backs and not having everyone in the box. We try to have a balanced offense. If it doesn’t work out, it’s a lot harder to win the game.”
The Steelers found that out the hard way on Monday.
Ray Fittipaldo: rfittipaldo@post-gazette.com and Twitter @rayfitt1.
First Published: December 10, 2020, 7:39 p.m.
