PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Mason Cole said the offensive line was challenged by Mike Tomlin before Thursday’s game. They answered it. So much so Najee Harris said they deserve the game ball from the win Thursday night.
“I think the O-line just did a really good job, just in general,” Harris said. “Today that showed what they really could be and our identity. I think our O-line deserves a lot more credit than anything. I think they won the game for us.”
Steelers eclipsed their best rushing game of the season by 52, finishing with 166 yards.
“Coach Tomlin challenged the bigs this week,” Cole said. “Short week, Thursday Night Football is usually the war of attrition, good to win that.”
Cole said what also likely helped was with the short week it’s a short menu of plays. There is no elaborate game plan, just picked the best, short-list of plays and went with it. He said that just allowed them to know they have to win the battle up front and they did.
“The line firing off the ball, getting to the second level making their blocks is really that determation and that will they have up front,” said receiver Diontae Johnson. “So who is winning the line of scrimmage? I feel like we won the line of scrimmage tonight.”
It’s also on the tailbacks, rarely Thursday night was there hesitation. Harris ran for a hard 69 yards including a 10-yard touchdown on the opening drive and a long of 25. Jaylen Warren averaged eight-yards per rush including a 22-yard run finishing with 88 yards. As Kenny Pickett said, the backs ran North and South on Thursday, only three plays resulted in negative yardage.
“I think having two backs that are fresh in there, it’s a huge difference,” Pickett said. “I think you see it. Both elite type backs that when they get going and they start hitting those holes North-South, they’re really tough to bring down. They both run really hard. Great speed-to-power with both of them.”
Tomlin said it was really their first chance to give both backs a full opportunity because they ran more plays. As Pickett said, they were able to get into a rhythm and the success fed off each other.
“I thought we converted some third downs earlier,” Tomlin said. “You know, we’ve been talking about it. You convert possession downs, you get more snaps. I think we converted our first third down of the game.”
“When you are converting third downs, you get more snap opportunities, and that usually leads to the attrition component of play, and really that’s kind of representative of the run game.”
Six running plays directly resulted in first downs and a pair of passing plays, one each to Warren and Harris, converted first downs.
“Can’t say enough,” Pickett said. “What they do in the pass game as well, it’s underappreciated, what 22 and 30 do when they get the ball in the flat or they have space.”
“If I’m ever in trouble or if I don’t see the coverage clearly, checking it down to those guys and letting them go down to do their thing is big for us.”
Steelers also started first-round pick Broderick Jones at right tackle. It’s not clear exactly what happened, Chukwuma Okorafor said he was something he said during the week that got him benched. Tomlin said he was just looking for a spark. Jones said he was told on Tuesday he would be the starter on the right side.
“Awesome to see him in there,” Pickett said. “The guy brings a lot of energy. It’s awesome to see. He brings a great attitude every day to work, practice. He texted me Sunday and was just like ‘are you going this week’? I was like ‘absolutely.’ He is, like, ‘all right, I’ll see you there’.
“It was good to have him in there. I told him he’s going to make mistakes but just keep playing the next play. It was awesome to have him in there.”
Jones pulled a number of times and the results speak for themselves. It was not a bad rush defense, Tennessee was 11th in the NFL in rushing yards allowed heading into the game.
“Big ups to the O-line,” Harris said. “I can’t talk about it enough. Just their mentality and creating movement up front. I think they did a really good job. I really hope we could have a game ball and give it to the O-line. They did a really good job today.”
Is this the start of something, or a one-off? Green Bay is next and then two critical games at the Browns and Bengals.