Bruce Arians needs to change his system to help the Steelers.

The Steelers are one of the most talented teams in the NFL. Their defense is undeniably one of the best in the league. They kept an extremely potent Eagles offense to only 13 offensive points and 260 yards last week and when you look down the roster their offense should be at the top of the league as well.  

They have a young pro bowl back field with Willie Park and Big Ben and Hines Ward, Santonio Holmes, and Heath Miller make up one of the more talented, but underrated, receiving corps in the NFL.

So why did the Steelers have an embarrassing loss to the Eagles in week 3? And why are Steelers’ fans worrying about another 10-6 season and an early playoff exist?

Well most Steelers fans will point to the offensive line. The line showed the same problems that crippled the team last season. Roethlisberger appeared to be running more than “Fast” Willie who along with the other backs on the team and amassed a horrific 33 total yards.

But when you make a rundown of the Steelers line their struggles don’t make much sense. Marvel Smith is a former Pro Bowler, Chris Kemoeatu looked great in camp and in his first two starts, Hartwig is a proven NFL starter as is Simmons, and Willy Colon is starting over Max Starks who was part of a Super Bowl winning line.

 So why is the line so bad?

First of all the players are part of the problem. Kendall Simmons looks old and confused at times and Colon is making fans beg for Starks. Also with two new starters this year cohesion could be part of the problem. But the players are only part of the problem.

The rest of the problem lies with Offensive Coordinator Bruce Arians.

Arians proved last week that he ranks among the worst play callers in the NFL. His failure to adjust his offensive scheme to the Eagles pass rush cost the Steelers the game.

To make matters worse the opposing team gave the perfect example of how the offense should’ve been run. McNabb used his check downs, especially to running back in the flat, to perfection and even though the Steelers defense was still able to limit the gains on those plays the short gain is much better than the huge losses on sacks that the Steelers took.

Why didn’t Big Ben mimic McNabb and use his hot reads to avoid sacks?

Because Bruce Arians called max protect plays which keep the RBs and TEs, normally the players running the short quick routs, into block. This takes away any chance of a bailout completion and forces the QB to create time until other routes develop.

This is fine if the max protects does protect but that clearly wasn’t the case last week or last season and despite this reoccurring Arians has still failed to make any changes.

The Steelers are a run first team and they certainly aren’t about to run anything resembling a west coast offensive but if the team wants to avoid giving up another 47 sacks this season then need to stop putting all the focus on the players and start looking at the offensive game plan.

Fans are already looking at what offensive linemen to draft in the first 3 rounds of the draft next year and although some improved talent on the line would help.  But if this performance keeps up then what fans should really be calling for is a new Offensive Coordinator.