4 Ways the Steelers Can Get Their Offense Back on Track for Playoff Push

The Pittsburgh Steelers suffered their first defeat in Week 13, a 23-17 loss to the Washington Football Team. 

A defeat to spoil perfect-season ambitions wasn't too hard to see coming though, not with the offense starting to crumble against a combination of better competition and self-inflicted wounds. 

After posting 24 or more points in every game through Week 11, Pittsburgh notably stumbled in a 19-14 win over Baltimore. Understandable, as the Steelers graduated from beating up on teams like Cincinnati, Jacksonville and other sub-.500 clubs and got in the ring with a pair of strong defenses.

The task now is figuring out what went wrong in those two games and improving upon those areas. The playoffs are around the corner and those mistakes could send the Steelers home early, gaudy numbers and regular-season wins be damned. 

Make Good on Threats (stop dropping the ball)

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The basics notably failed the Steelers in recent weeks. 

By Pro Football Focus' count, the Steelers led the league since Week 12 in dropped passes with 13. The next closest team had six. 

Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin has a simple solution, as captured by Joe Rutter of TribLIVE.com: "They can catch the ball or get replaced by those who can catch it."

But this isn't a problem exclusive to the prior two weeks, it's just one the Steelers got away with against worse competition. The Steelers have 27 drops on the season, the fourth-worst mark in the league. Diontae Johnson leads the way with seven on a 6.6 drop percentage and Eric Ebron isn't far behind at five and 6.4 percent. 

Historically, this comes with the territory with Ebron, who dropped 8.2 percent of his targets in 2018 and 9.6 last season. Given that Pittsburgh has leaned into the idea short passes can replicate the running game and perhaps be even more productive, Tomlin needs to make good on his threats if this keeps up. 

Take More Shots...

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...Especially with Chase Claypool. 

It's a little perplexing Claypool, a second-round pick this year, has only played on roughly 64 percent of his offense's snaps this season. He is, after all, the owner of 649 yards and a team-high eight touchdowns, not to mention a team-high 13.8 yards per catch. 

A mixture of things have helped to make Claypool this effective so far. But the short game flailing with the fundamentals will eventually cause this well to dry up, too. 

And as Marcus Mosher of The Raiders Wire pointed out, Ben Roethlisberger is only averaging 6.04 yards per attempt over his last seven outings, a number comparable to the recently benched Carson Wentz.

The next point (health) plays a part too, but stretching the field more to a weapon like Claypool will likely create more operating room underneath against better defenses. 

Get Healthy

Gary McCullough/Associated Press

While every team deals with injuries throughout the season, especially later in the year, the Steelers had a special blend of absences against Washington with two starting offensive linemen and running back James Conner out. 

So much so, Tomlin had to personally address a "catastrophic" scenario where his team couldn't score a touchdown from the one-yard line on multiple attempts, according to ESPN's Brooke Pryor: "If you can't get a yard in our game, you don't deserve to win. That's the nuts and bolts of football."

Luckily for the Steelers, it sounds like Conner and Maurkice Pouncey could be back as soon as Week 14. That's especially good news because besides the one-yard line scenario Tomlin mentioned, the Steelers managed just 1.5 yards per carry over 21 attempts versus 53 pass attempts in the loss to Washington. 

It flows from there. Better health means better protection, which means more push in the running game and time for deeper patterns down the field to develop. Execution itself will continue to be a theme, but so will having the right guys on the field. 

Manufacture Higher-Percentage Looks When It Counts

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Over the last two games, the Steelers have posted a 12-of-29 line on third downs and a 0-of-4 mark on fourth downs and are just 2-of-7 in the red zone. 

Add in Tomlin's frustration about being unable to punch it in from one yard away and it's easy to see why the offense is a point of frustration.

Keep in mind over the last two weeks as a whole, the Steelers have averaged just 4.8 yards per play and 2.6 yards per rush. It means upon Conner's return, he needs to resume bell cow status in a hurry. Before his absence, he had averaged 4.4 yards per carry for 645 yards and five touchdowns. 

The idea the short passing game can replicate the running game isn't a terrible one, but pounding it with Conner would seem to remove the risk that comes with the passing game's issues merely catching the ball. 

Debates about offensive approach aside, reliable players in consistent spots will quickly help these all-too-important scenarios be success stories against great competition too, which is good considering the schedule will only get more difficult from here. Three of the Steelers final four games are against the Bills, Colts and Browns.