Najee Harris isn’t totally familiar with the word ‘cathartic,’ but he definitely seems to have experienced the sensation this week.
Harris rushed for 99 yards Sunday, his highest output of the season, as the Steelers beat New Orleans 20-10.
“I think I did a lot better this week,” said the second-year running back Friday, somewhat bluntly.
Harris’ 2022 season, through its first eight weeks, was shaping up to be somewhere between disappointment and disaster. But, Sunday, he was part of an offense that rushed for 217 yards, the most by the Steelers in nearly six years.
“If you want to achieve a lot of success, failure comes. But with failure comes success,” he said. “So if I just keep my head down and keep focusing and game planning, and keep getting better every day, good things will happen.”
That was the case this past week. And a slight change in running style, and perhaps a much-needed week off, seems to have benefitted the tailback.
His offensive coordinator, Matt Canada, said as much this week. He felt Harris ran more ‘downhill’ Sunday, and that was evident both in person and on film.
Harris hit the holes hard, more decisively, and with an overall better burst than what he had shown since sustaining a Lisfranc injury in his foot during Training Camp.
It also helped that the Steelers found early success with Harris — who ripped off a 36-yard run, the second longest of his career — and stayed with it. His 20 carries were the most he’s had all season.
“For a running back, the more carries you get, obviously the more you get more feel for the game,” he said. “When you start getting more, the defense starts decreasing because of the amount of time that you’re imposing your will on them.”
The Steelers embodied that Sunday, winning the time of possession battle by roughly 17 minutes.
Harris also got involved as the direct snap taker in a wildcat formation, something that the Steelers have used off-and-on in the past, and could be an option for them going forward.
“It opens up a lot, you know, getting different looks,” Harris said. “So we're going to expand it more and see what else we can do.
“You can pass, you can do a lot of stuff with it. You can expand it to do a lot of other things, too. So that's just another way of looking for defenses to game plan against that, too.”
In all, it’s another wrinkle in what is, while not overly successful, certainly a diverse run game the Steelers sport. In Sunday’s game, six different players recorded multiple rush attempts.
“We're trying to focus more on that,” Harris said. “So I think that is kind of our identity, as an offense.”
Harris has opened up some of late about his emotional struggles during the season, and battling the disappointment that has come with not living up to expectations set by himself and others.
So was last week ‘cathartic?’
“What’s that,” Harris asked.
“I don’t know,” replied the reporter who had asked, perhaps half-joking.
“What the (expletive),” Harris exclaimed, with a far more relaxed demeanor than this time last week.
Time will tell — and that time is coming Sunday — if the Steelers can carry over their success on the ground deeper into the season’s back half. Harris, of course, is hopeful that it can, but also realizes that last week’s triumphs aren’t promised this weekend, when the team hopes to sweep the season series with rival Cincinnati.
“We just start off every week like we’re 0-0,” he said. “You got to go out there and you got to grind. You got to keep working. Like I said, through this process, it’s tough right now, but if you keep working, good things will happen.”