Tomlin knows the snowball effect works both ways ... right?
The Steelers were dominated by the Texans by a 306 margin on Sunday in Houston. Here are four questions for them and the rest of the NFL to ponder to start Week 5, when the Steelers will welcome the division rival Ravens to Acrisure Stadium.
When is this offense going to break the reverse snowball effect? Coach Mike Tomlin spoke last week about how offensive success can build on itself as it did in the Week 3 win against Las Vegas. The more first downs a unit gets, the more it can mix tempos, personnel and looks. Too often with this offense, we’re seeing the opposite of that.
Poor play calls and execution on first and second downs, leading to difficult third-down conversions. A lack of explosiveness that leaves even good play calls short of sticks. If coordinator Matt Canada can’t fix those issues, then it doesn’t matter how good the flow looks when his unit does manage to hit a first down or two and get into a rhythm on a drive.
There won’t be enough such drives for the Steelers to win any more consistently than they did in 2022.
Entire halves when the production can be measured in single-digit point totals will be the rule, not the exception, to the point that even strong second halves will be irrelevant on days like Sunday against Houston when 30-plus points are going to be needed to win. Simply put, the wasted downs are making this unit excruciating to watch. And a couple of encouraging drives per week should not obscure this fact.
Are the Steelers’ future opponents going to learn from the Texans’ success at neutralizing the pass rush? Texans offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik did a masterful job of taking T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith out of the game by setting rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud up with throws he could get out of his hand quickly. Stroud did a great job of reading the defense and delivering to the right guys. And the receivers knew exactly where the soft spots of the Steelers’ coverage would be.
The result, the CBS broadcast noted, was Stroud being able to get the ball out in 2.2 seconds on average. That’s not enough time for even the best pass rushes to get home, even when going against a banged up offensive line like the Texans. This wasn’t a case of a defense giving up one or two big plays that decided the game. It was a precision attack that could leave a mark if the Steelers aren’t careful to learn some lessons from it.
Does Cincinnati just stink? It’s becoming a valid question after the Bengals’ 27-3 loss Sunday in Tennessee. Receiver Tee Higgins’ slow start continued. He now has just 10 catches on 28 targets from quarterback Joe Burrow this season. The typically explosive Ja’Marr Chase has been held to fewer than 100 yards in three of four games. And the defense didn’t have any answers for the Titans’ Ryan Tannehill and Derrick Henry. The former averaged 9.6 yards per attempt on Sunday. The latter averaged 5.5 yards per rush and accounted for two scores, passing for one down near the goal line.
The result? The Bengals are now 1-3, despite their apparent offensive talent edge on the rest of the AFC North. There aren’t many reasons for Steelers fans to feel good right now. But the fact that Burrow and coach Zac Taylor seem even more lost than Pickett and Canada
is among them.
Can anyone in the AFC North keep up with Baltimore?
While the Bengals and Steelers limped along offensively on Sunday, the Ravens took care of business against a Cleveland group that’s looking unable to overcome its costly injuries. Minus the incomparable Nick Chubb at running back and Deshaun Watson at quarterback, the Browns managed just three points Sunday as rookie quarterback Dorian Thompson- Robinson tossed three interceptions in a 28-3 loss.
On the other side, Lamar Jackson was efficient, completing 15 of 19 passes for an average of 9.8 yards per attempt, a pair of scores and a passer rating of 142.5. The running game was just OK, averaging 4.0 yards per carry. But that was enough. The Ravens don’t look like any kind of unstoppable force offensively. But they do seem to have things figured out to the point that they can post a respectable number in the points column most weeks. A quarter of the way through the schedule, it’s looking like that may be all it takes to cruise to a crown.