PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Even in a loss to the last place Bengals, Steelers offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner believes something good may have come out of it.
“It was that feeling that maybe, maybe some of that juice is coming back,” Fichtner said Thursday. “That swag, some of that that has been missed over a period of time.”
Fichtner said they ran it 11 times in the first half against Cincinnati and had six play-action passes and, while lacking consistency, did see some light.
Much of that light provided by the running game, rushing for what recently seems like an impressive number of 86 yards. With James Conner out, Benny Snell started and ran for 84 of them.
“I thought Benny [Snell] brought a nice energy and nice physicality, got us some tough yards when we needed it, also made some guys miss and got to the outside,” said quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. “It was nice to have that.”
“I saw it coming with the week of practice,” Fichtner said. “Saw it coming because Benny Snell is a competitor and didn’t want to be denied. He brought a lot of energy and juice to that game. I felt like we were more consistent running the ball. We still had our pitfalls, we had a third and one and didn’t make it. Situationally is where the run game has to keep coming, whether it’s red zone, whether it’s short-yardage, goal line, that type of thing.”
The second year tailback from Kentucky, Snell has only three games this year with double-digit carries and has three or fewer carries in a game six times. Mike Tomlin indicated that Snell could touch the ball more this week even if Conner is healthy.
“He’s done a good job with ball security,” Fichtner said of Snell. “He’s a fighter. He’s got pretty good contact balance. He usually falls forward. I know it means an awful lot to him. I say that because I just see him, the time and effort and the things he does to be a professional.”
“I’m excited with him right now, but I’m also excited that James may be coming back to us. Two of those guys being ‘healthy’ might just be what we need to pick up our run game.”