In Arthur Smith's second season as offensive coordinator, diversity of attack has become a staple of the Steelers' offense.
Last week against the Bengals, Pat Freiermuth became the sixth non-quarterback this season to gain over 70 yards of offense in a game. He caught 5 passes for 111 yards and 2 touchdowns to join DK Metcalf, Calvin Austin III, Jaylen Warren, Kenneth Gainwell, and Darnell Washington as statistical examples of in-game weapons.
Last year's Steelers, while also starting 4-2, had only three such players at this point in the season.
"I think it's a credit to those guys," said Smith. "Eventually they break it down about who's targeted in red zone or third down – critical situations. And so, you make them, hopefully, have to defend everybody. Everybody's live on every play.
"In some offenses, it's like what I call '90s basketball, where it's isolation. That works for some people. But we've got a lot of guys with different skill sets and play multiple spots. So, it helps. We've just got to continue to keep building off that."
The only player on both lists in Smith's two seasons is Austin, who this season had made 10 catches for 139 yards and 2 touchdowns before injuring his shoulder and missing the last two games.
In the first two games, Austin caught an 18-yard touchdown pass against the Jets to give the Steelers a fourth-quarter lead and he caught a 17-yard touchdown pass against the Patriots for the game-winning points.
Austin is expected to return this week to play against the Packers on Sunday night.
"It's great when you get a guy back that's a productive player and a big part of our offense," Smith said. "That's an added for us, for sure. Since I've gotten here, Calvin's played really good football, has made some big plays this season. We're happy to have him back."
Austin's return reinforces Smith's diversity of attack on offense. He was asked about the next step for the unit.
"There's always stuff to work on," Smith said. "Even if you're winning and you feel like this time of year you're rolling, you've got to just really stay objective, neutral, because there's always something. You just can't get complacent, or think that, 'Oh, we got it because we played well for a week,' or early part of the season. History will tell you this.
"You've got to come in every day looking for things to improve, because sometimes things may be rolling in some ways, but it may be hiding something else that you know is going to get exposed if you don't fix it. That's stuff we try to work on every day, because you've got to be peaking at the right time. Obviously, you've got to have enough wins banked to get in the tournament, but you really need to be playing your best football as you get close to the end of the season."
Coach Will returns to practice
Sixth-round draft pick Will Howard was a highlight of spring practices and the early portion of training camp. But he injured his throwing hand during an Aug. 5 practice and didn't have the opportunity to play in a preseason game.
Howard returned to the practice field this week in the opening of his 21-day window. The Steelers have three weeks to determine whether to activate Howard or keep him on injured reserve the rest of the season.
"It goes back a little bit to the philosophical (discussion) about developing quarterbacks," Smith said. "How do you develop young guys without playing games? And so, we put a lot of work into it. It was unfortunate what happened. He didn't get to play in the preseason. But I think it's important for him to practice. If you try to sit a guy out the whole year, I think it's important to get those reps. We'll see how the season unfolds."
Fixing the run defense
Mike Tomlin's mid-week answer to several questions about his team's defensive performance in the 33-31 loss to the Bengals was most times the same: The Steelers have to stop the run.
In their best games this season, against the Vikings and Browns, they did that. So defensive coordinator Teryl Austin was asked how his unit could do so more consistently, and he stuck to the script.
"I got a simple answer for you: We have to stop the run," said Austin. "When you allow teams to run, then it opens up all kinds of things. It opens up play-action pass, it shrinks your menu. Because what you do now is you're doing things to make sure you have to bring possibly extra guys down to try to stop the run. So, the bottom line is, we got to be able to stop the run, and then I think that opens up and allows us to play well."
Back in the day of stout nose tackles such as Joel Steed, Casey Hampton, and Chris Hoke, the Steelers routinely stuffed the run. But in this more pass-happy era, nose tackles are used less frequently. In fact, a four-man front that utilizes two outside linebackers has become the most-oft-used alignment for the Steelers. Austin was asked whether his "nickel" front is stout enough to defend the run the way he and Tomlin desire.
"Yes," Austin said without hesitating. "I don't think it's the front, whether we're in nickel, or whether we're in our base front, or whatever we're doing. The thing is, we have to be able to stop it. Because there's so much 11 personnel (three WRs), you see teams that play the whole game in nickel, and they don't care what it is, and they're able to stop the run. We'll play it in our big package and in our normal package, and our nickel package, and we've got to be able to stop the run.
"I think we have the guys to do it; we just haven't gotten it done. But I haven't lost faith in that. I just know we have to continue to work. It's a long season, and we'll keep pouring our efforts into being able to stop it, and getting better at it, because we have done it. Right now we're just inconsistent in doing it."
Secondary 'going to bounce back'
Even though the Steelers rank 17th against the run and 31st against the pass, the run defense remains the staff's focus because there's strong belief in a secondary that was bolstered this offseason by the additions of Jalen Ramsey, Darius Slay, Brandin Echols, Juan Thornhill, Chuck Clark, and Jabrill Peppers.
"Obviously we all thought we'd be better," Austin said. "But I understand it's the NFL and I know these guys are pros and I know they'll bounce back. Because their pedigree tells me the way they work, their mindset tells me they're going to bounce back.
"The nice thing, for me, is it's a long season. We've seen these guys. They've got a track record of playing well and playing over the long haul. To me, it's just a matter of us continuing to work at it, and eventually they'll get into their groove, and they'll start playing the type of football overall that we want: more consistent."
