PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Head coach Mike Tomlin admitted, maybe the Steelers could use the middle of the field more often as the offense looks for chunk plays.
Mason Rudolph led the offense on three scoring drives on Sunday—one of 13 plays, another of seven and then the final was 17 plays. The previous week against Cincinnati, the TD drives were eight and 12 plays. It’s not a Rudolph or Aaron Rodgers issue, this team has struggled the last five games in getting explosive plays.
Steelers have only 25 passing plays of 20 yards or more this season, only Cleveland, the Jets and Saints are worse in the NFL. One area that is underexplored is between the hashes. Could they use the middle of the field more?
“Maybe, it's week to week, depending on the schematics that the team or the teams that we compete against choose to deploy,” Tomlin said. “But certainly, largely, if you look at the large body of work, there's probably some more opportunities for us in the interior portions of the field.”
The maddening part of the Chicago game was the Bears were without their three top middle linebackers. Tomlin is normally risk averse to that part of the field as the potential for interceptions are higher. They also came into the season with their deepest offensive position group being tight ends. They normally run the middle of the field.
In the last five games, there are the tight ends stats
Pat Freiermuth
· Packers 3 receptions, 13 yards
· Indy 3 recpetions, 27 yards, TD
· Chargers 3 receptions, 33 yards
· Bengals 1 reception, 19 yards
· Bears 3 receptions, 19 yards, TD
Darnell Washington
· Packers no receptions
· Indy 4 receptions, 43 yards
· Chargers 1 reception, 15 yards
· Bengals 4 receptions, 67 yards
· Bears 2 receptions, 22 yards
Jonnu Smith
· Packers 2 receptions, 17 yards
· Indy 3 receptions, 25 yards
· Chargers 1 reception, 4 yards
· Bengals no receptions
· Bears 3 receptions, 21 yards
Let’s focus on Jonnu for a minute, last year with Miami he had 88 receptions for 884 yards with 8 touchdowns. In 2024 he had eight games of 50-plus yards. Smith has no games this year with at least 30 yards receiving and overall 29 catches for 184 yards and two scores, averaging 6.4 yards per catch.
What are defenses doing to take him away?
“I don't know if they're doing anything specifically,” Tomlin said. “Sometimes it's just our planning. Certainly, Jonnu is a capable member of our unit, and you know, it usually comes around. A number of weeks back, you guys were asking me about Muth and I gave you a similar response. So keep watching.”
Tomlin pointed out they took a couple of shots downfield to receivers on Sunday that weren’t completed, in fact one was intercepted and the others missed by a wide margin. He said they will get back to work and ‘keep pressing’.