Could we be witnessing one of the most special rushing seasons in Steelers history?
If it continues, what Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren have done since Week 9 might push them into conversation with some of the great duos to run the ball in Steelers' history.
Certainly that is topped by Franco Harris and Rocky Bleier, who in 1976 both rushed for 1,000 yards in a 14-game regular season. But there have been some other memorable rushing duos for the team in the years since.
For example, Barry Foster and Bam Morris combined for 1,687 yards, both topping 800 yards each in 1994. Then there was Jerome Bettis gaining 1,431 yards in 1996 when Erric Pegram chipped in an additional 509. And Willie Parker had 1,316 yards rushing in 2007 when Najeh Davenport added 499 to the team's rushing total.
Bettis (941) and Duce Staley (830) also both topped 800 rushing yards in 2004, when the Steelers relied on their running game to help move the offense with a rookie quarterback starting.
There have only been seven duos in NFL history that have rushed for 1,000 yards in the same season on the same team, including Harris and Bleier.
Given what Harris and Warren have done since the calendar turned over to the month of November, they have a shot to join that group.
In their past three games, the Steelers have rushed for an average of 181 yards. Only the Ravens, at 187 yards per game over that same period, have been better.
Their 543 yards rushing yards is the most in three consecutive games since Weeks 1 through 3 of 2007 – Mike Tomlin's first season – when the Steelers rushed for 595 yards (206 at Cleveland in Week 1, 184 vs. Buffalo in Week 2 and 205 vs. San Francisco in Week 3).
Considering Baltimore gets an average of 48.6 yards per game from quarterback Lamar Jackson on the ground – his lowest total since his rookie season – the argument could be made that the Steelers' traditional running game has been the best in the league since the calendar flipped to the month of November.
And the Steelers have gotten to that level due to the efforts of both of their running backs and, obviously, the men blocking for them.
Harris has carried the ball 44 times for 186 yards, an average of 4.2 yards per attempt. Extrapolated over a full season, that would be 1,054 yards despite averaging just 14.7 carries per game over that period.
Warren, meanwhile, has been on an incredible heater. He's gained 318 yards on 35 rushing attempts. That works out to just over 1,800 yards over the course of a full season at 9.1 yards per carry.
That has improved Warren's yards per carry average in 2023 to a league-best 6.2. He has a chance to become the first Steelers player to lead the league in yards per carry since Johnny Clement in 1947.
Currently, Harris and Warren are 13th and 14th, respectively, in rushing yards in the AFC, with Harris having 499 and Warren at 493 with seven games remaining on the schedule.
If they continue at the pace they've been in the past three weeks, Harris would finish the season with 933 rushing yards and Warren would have 1,235.
And employing both as options is what new offensive coordinator/running backs coach Eddie Faulkner plans to do.
"We need both them guys to win," Faulkner said Thursday. "You know what I mean? Like, it's really that simple to me. And so that's what we'll continue to do."
Considering this week's opponent, the Bengals, rank 31st in the NFL in rushing defense, allowing 138.3 yards per game, and are one of just two NFL teams allowing 5.0 yards per carry or higher this season, there's little reason to think Harris and Warren can't add to their totals in a big way on Sunday.
Not bad for a team that, going into Week 9, had averaged 79.7 yards and 3.4 yards per carry in the first eight weeks of the season.
The bottom line is that it doesn't matter who starts or gets what carries. Both backs have been highly effective. There were just 16 running backs that topped 1,000 rushing yards in 2022. The Steelers have a chance to see two backs get to that total this season.
• There's no denying the Steelers have struggled offensively to this point, but the DVOA rankings expect them to be much better the rest of the season.
Aaron Schatz, the creator of DVOA (Defensive Value Over Average), explained this week why the Steelers rank 11th overall in total team DVOA, just behind the 9-1 Philadelphia Eagles.
Per Schatz on FTNFantasy.com, where his work with DVOA, which he's compiled since 1981, now appears, the reason the Steelers rank so highly is for three main reasons.
First, the Steelers' average offensive drive is starting at their own 26.4 yard line. That's 31st in the NFL. That means the Steelers have to move the ball farther than all but one team to get into scoring range.
Second, the Steelers avoid turnovers. Their eight turnovers this season are tied with Cincinnati and the Chargers for fewest in the NFL.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, their high DVOA ranking takes into account their schedule. And to this point, the Steelers have played five games this season against defenses ranked in the top eight in the NFL in terms of DVOA. That number rises to five defenses in the top seven when the fact is taken into consideration the Steelers can't play against themselves – they are seventh in defensive DVOA.
That most certainly matters. Per Schatz, if the season ended this week, the Steelers would have played the third-toughest slate of defenses since he began charting DVOA in 1981.
The rest of this season, they face just one top-rated defense – Baltimore in Week 18. The other teams they face all have defenses that come in at 13th or lower in DVOA, including Cincinnati this week, which ranks 22nd despite having forced 18 turnovers.
• The Steelers are giving up an average of 105.7 rushing yards per game over their past three games, which would coincide with when defensive tackle Cam Heyward returned to the lineup.
In the six games they played without Heyward after he was injured in the first half of their regular season opener against the 49ers, the Steelers allowed 128.7 rushing yards per game.
Being able to run the ball and stopping the run are two things that should definitely play well the remainder of this season as the weather turns from just fall to winter.
• Even though the NFL regular season now includes 17 games instead of 16, once a team gets 10 games into its season is when things start to get real with playoff positioning.
As things currently stand, the Steelers are seventh in the AFC playoff field, making them the third Wild Card team.
The Bengals are 11th, meaning they have three other teams to climb over to get to where the Steelers sit. And they no longer have quarterback Joe Burrow available.
How important is this week's game? Beyond being a game within the division and conference, which makes it double valuable, the difference between winning it and losing it is significant.
Per the NFL, since 2000, teams that get to 7-4 through 11 games have a 71.2 percent chance to make the playoffs. Falling to 6-5 lowers those odds to 44.4 percent.
•Dale Lolley is co-host of "SNR Drive" on Steelers Nation Radio. Subscribe to the podcast here: Apple Podcast | iHeart Podcast
For the Bengals, that would be an improvement. If they lose this game to fall to 5-6, their odds of making the postseason would fall to 13.9 percent.
• With the season-ending injury to Cincinnati's Joe Burrow last week, the NFL now has quarterbacks who have contracts worth more than $1 billion out for the remainder of the season. That obviously also includes Cleveland's Deshaun Watson, the Jets' Aaron Rodgers and Minnesota's Kirk Cousins, among others.
It's led to, once again, a number of teams starting multiple quarterbacks they didn't plan on playing.
There were 68 different starting quarterbacks used by NFL teams in 2022, a record for a non-strike season.
Already this season, we're at 48 different starting quarterbacks, a number that will top 50 this weekend when Jake Browing starts for the Bengals and Jets play Tim Boyle against the Dolphins in tonight's Black Friday game against the Dolphins.
