Pittsburgh Steelers Must Stay Committed to Run Game in Key Season Stretch

The fact is, a whole lot went wrong for the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday. The 20-13 loss to the New York Jets was a new low for the season, and now the Steelers have to scramble to stay in the playoff hunt. And in reviewing the game, there are a couple of spots on offense where Pittsburgh really didn’t follow the script.

Gene Puskar/Associated Press

What area am I talking about? The run game. Let’s take a closer look at the numbers. In the win over the Houston Texans, the Steelers running backs had 21 carries. And they won. And against the Indianapolis Colts, Steelers running backs had 30 carries. And they won big. Finally, Pittsburgh had 21 carries in the win over the Baltimore Ravens.

How do they follow that up against the Jets? Sixteen carries by running backs, including only 11 carries by star running back Le’Veon Bell. It doesn’t matter how well quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is playing, this team cannot win if they shut Bell out of the offensive game plan for the long run.

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Le'Veon Bell warrants 20+ carries & 5+ targets every game. Anything less is sabotage.

— Shane Alexander (@A1GFootball) November 9, 2014"

What did Pittsburgh do instead of running the football? In the first half, they tried to stretch the Jets defense wide with the horizontal passing game. The one they had sacked for this new flashy vertical game the past three weeks.

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Steelers had 5 completions for zero or negative yards and didn’t have a reception longer than 15 yards in the first half.

— Gerry Dulac (@gerrydulac) November 10, 2014"

The Jets punched the Steelers offensive line in the mouth and tackled the route every time the Steelers threw the ball short. I get the philosophy from a Steelers point of view. Get the football wide quickly against a Jets secondary that was supposed to be down. These kinds of throws are basically an extension of the run game.

Unfortunately, the Jets came to play, and the Steelers coaches didn’t adjust on the fly. Pittsburgh suffered through yet another miserable first quarter, and this time it couldn’t recover. However, it never had to come to that. Even though Pittsburgh was down, there was no reason to just scrap the running game and air it out for so much of the game.

How do the Steelers fix this? First, offensive coordinator Todd Haley needs to stop overthinking the game plan. The Steelers manhandled two very good defenses by utilizing opportunistic running paired up with a deep passing attack. Why change that up against a defense that isn’t as talented at the same spots they could exploit?

Kathy Willens/Associated Press

Everyone understands that the hold on the AFC North is tenuous at best. Look for the top spot to trade places multiple times between now and the end of the season. And the weather is going to get bad. After the bye, Pittsburgh is going to get four of their final five games outdoors and potentially in nasty weather.

The Steelers won’t be able to just chuck it down the field, and they certainly won’t be able to swing it out wide over and over. No, they are going to have to be able to line up and run at defenses to set up the play-action game.

That’s where Bell comes in. Feed Bell and good things will happen. All of the hype has been about Bell’s trimmer build and the explosion that goes along with it. However, do not undersell the fact that Bell can run with power when needed. The Steelers still think that because LeGarrette Blount is heavier, he is somehow a legit power back.

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Le'Veon Bell: 23 red zone carries, 51 yards. LeGarrette Blount, 11 red zone carries, 19 yards (courtesy http://t.co/3XFm6as0f5)

— Will Graves (@WillGravesAP) November 11, 2014"

Want another example of how underutilized Bell is?

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Trent Richardson has more RZ carries than Le'Veon Bell this year. Ughh

— Adam Pfeifer (@aPfeiferFF) November 9, 2014"

For all of the fun this new passing game is, the Steelers coaches need to never forget just what a special talent they have in the backfield. Not to mention how important his production is to this team’s success. Feed Bell and good things will happen.