The Pittsburgh Steelers had an opportunity to make a statement after their embarrassing Week 1 loss at the hands of the San Fransisco 49ers on the Monday Night Football stage. Offensively, a unit that most had high expectations for heading into the season, it fell flat on their keisters.
There’s a lack of identity, the offensive line is no better (perhaps worse?) than it was in 2022 and Kenny Pickett appears to have regressed to his early rookie season ways.
Buy Steelers TicketsHis perfect passer rating in the preseason offered a false sense of hope and security. While no team plays to its full strength in meaningless games, it’s as if the preseason Steelers never happened.
“Offensively, we have to get our mojo back,” Mike Tomlin said in his weekly press conference. “We got to get that mojo that we had in the preseason, where we’re playing fast and fluid with confidence, individually and collectively.
“We’ve lost that to be blunt. We’re not getting the type of fluidity that we want in our starts. We’re not teeing up possession downplay, not being in advantageous possession down circumstances, and really is making it challenging to sustain drives and to score points.”
Mike Tomlin on his offense: "We have to get our mojo back, we have to get our mojo back from the preseason, get back to playing fast and with fluidity. We've lost that."
— Gerry Dulac (@gerrydulac) September 19, 2023
And what’s Tomlin’s magic plan to ensure the Return of the Mojo? Put them in recognizable situations to succeed.
“We’ve got to put them in really good circumstances,” he said. “They have to recognize those circumstances and perform. And so, you can say it in a small number of words, but really, it’s a procedure. It’s a procedure that transpires over the course of six days. It’s planning from a coaching perspective. It’s teaching and learning from a player and coach perspective in a classroom setting, walkthrough setting.”
What happens in meetings needs to translate to the practice field in hopes of a smooth transition to the real thing. Only the transition has been anything but smooth.
“There’s an execution component of it, it’s played out in reps in practice,” Tomlin explained. “You have a limited number of those, so you better be thoughtful and intentional about how you utilize them, not only what you run, but the schematics that you’re presenting to them on the other side and their ability to absorb it and learn and understand and gain confidence and thus individually and collectively play fast and fluid and make the type of splash plays that we’re talking about. It has many layers to it, and I’m excited about getting back to work this week.”
The Steelers head out west to Las Vegas to take on the 1-1 Raiders on a consecutive national stage for Sunday Night Football. We’ll see if the offensive unit can peel back those layers to reveal something worthy of Pittsburgh Steelers football.
