Are the Pittsburgh Steelers a passing team? Are they a running team? As of Monday morning, they are neither. Everyone knew the Steelers would go through a transition to life without wide receiver Antonio Brown. But I’m not sure anyone could have anticipated just how lost they would be with four months to prepare for the New England Patriots.
The Steelers offense failed to find any sort of consistency running the football early and once the Patriots got a quick lead the Steelers gameplan went completely sideways.
Pittsburgh was only able to muster 308 yards of offense, 276 of which came through the air. We concede being down 20-0 at halftime forced the Steelers to abandon the run game in an attempt to get points on the board.
But even before the Patriots had the lead, the run scheme seemed out of sorts. The Steelers tried to mix the run concepts and even game Jaylen Samuels two early carries, however, lackluster effort negated any originality by offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner.
Comparing the Steelers performance against the Patriots is challenging. New England has had the Steelers number for so long, this performance could be an outlier. The Steelers need to reset and prepare for their home debut against the Seattle Seahawks.
