How Can the Pittsburgh Steelers Regain Control of the AFC North?

In the past five seasons, the Pittsburgh Steelers have been AFC North champions three times. Last year, they came in second to their biggest divisional rival, the Baltimore Ravens. But that is no indicator that the Steelers' time in the sun has passed.

They most certainly have all the tools—and experience—at their disposal to once again reign supreme in one of the NFL's most difficult divisions.

But this year, it's not just the Ravens the Steelers need to keep an eye on. The Cincinnati Bengals are on their way up, and the Cleveland Browns, perennial jokes of the division, have embarked on an aggressive period of rebuilding that shouldn't render them the easy-out they've been in recent years.

So, how do the Steelers get back to being top dog in the AFC North? Let's try to break it down.

Red Zone Scoring

Though the Steelers offense didn't have much trouble marching down the field, once they got into the red zone, they weren't terribly efficient at scoring touchdowns. Pittsburgh scored a touchdown just 50.91 percent of the time they were in the red zone last season (ranking them 17th overall) and had a dismal touchdown percentage of 41.67 percent in away games.

For a team that averaged just 3.2 red zone scoring opportunities per game last year, they clearly need to increase their success rate.

This isn't a new problem for Pittsburgh. In red-zone scoring, they ranked 22nd in 2009 and 15th in 2010. The hope is that new offensive coordinator Todd Haley can both speed up the offense and increase their scoring efficiency.

Though the Steelers have had a lot of success thanks to their defense holding opponents to few yards and even fewer touchdowns, there's never anything wrong with being able to consistently be a scoring threat inside the 20s. And it's something they'll need to improve upon if they want to win the AFC North title this year.

No other offense had the ball for more total time last year than the Steelers, but yet again, scores seemed at a premium. Red-zone play-calling didn't seem to work in the Steelers offense's favor during the Bruce Arians years, and this year, look for Haley to take a different approach when the team gets into scoring situations.

There may be fewer touchdown pass attempts in short yardage as the Steelers attempt to bring some of the focus back onto their run game. And the red-zone passing they do needs to be quicker, less predictable and lower-risk. 

The goal is for the Steelers to have an offense that is just as explosive and dangerous as their defense. With the more-aggressive Haley calling the plays and an array of deadly weapons, both in the passing and running games, at his disposal, they should be more successful in their scoring attempts.

Third- and Fourth-Down Defense

Though the Steelers defense allowed the fewest overall yards and touchdowns per game in the league last year, they had one very glaring fault: their seeming inability to stop opposing offenses on third and fourth downs.

The Steelers ranked 23rd last year in opponent third-down conversions per game, allowing 5.2 per game on average. They also allowed .5 fourth-down conversions per game last season, good for just 25th in the league.

For a defense that gave up so few points and yards per game and dominated in time of possession, these are disturbing numbers. If the Steelers want to climb back to the top of the AFC North, then reversing course on these critical plays is necessary.

Whether it's the defense being fooled on third and fourth downs, or they're just being outplayed by faster offenses, there needs to be a fix.

Though the Steelers defense was lucky last year—those converted third and fourth downs didn't seem to yield all that many more yards or scores for their opponents—it's not sustainable. The Steelers cannot keep giving up these downs and still hope to prevent every opposing offense from marching down the field. 

Not only is this a weakness, it's a highly exploitable one. And with their divisional rivals' offenses getting younger and faster, the Steelers could struggle in this area yet again with disastrous results. Their entire defensive attack, every down, needs to be performing on a high level. There aren't any plays worth giving less than 100 percent effort.

Don't Fix What Isn't Broken

Though the Steelers could do more to have a more balanced offense in terms of the run game, and though they do have struggles keeping opponents from converting key downs, the team as a whole has a lot of things going for i that aren't worth discarding or heavily tweaking.

Pittsburgh still has one of the best passing offenses in the league, so it makes no sense to switch to a decidedly run-heavy attack—it would be more prudent to instead run better and more effectively rather than more often.

On defense, the Steelers need to basically continue to do what they did last year. They were the best unit in the league in terms of points and yards allowed, and there's no reason for this to change in 2012. Yes, everyone is a year older, and there are new faces starting both in the front seven and the secondary, but the talent level and philosophy hasn't changed. 

Luckily, Haley is no moron, and he's not about to throw out things that worked well on offense under Arians simply because he's new in town. What happens on the field for that offense, between the 20s, has been effective. Haley simply needs to make it more balanced and more efficient, with more protection for Ben Roethlisberger. 

Defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau isn't inexperienced, either. And he's not about to change when what's stayed the same has resulted in Pittsburgh consistently having one of the league's premier defenses year after year. 

As long as the Steelers focus on the areas that need improvement without overly tweaking those that have succeeded, the Steelers have an extremely good chance of yet again being the top team in the AFC North.

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