Arthur Smith originally came to Pittsburgh because he was offered a job he wanted, with a franchise he respected, and for a head coach who was like-minded. Through the first two weeks of the regular season, he was part of a team that opened with back-to-back road games and emerged from them at 2-0. But the offense, his offense had scored just 1 touchdown in 21 possessions, and numbers like that look bad. The field goal kicker had gone 8-for-8 so they had provided the excellent defense with enough of a cushion, but the results weren't matching the work being done on a daily basis since training camp opened on July 23.
But as the final preparations were being made for their home opener – on Sept. 22 against the equally undefeated Los Angeles Chargers – Smith still believed in the plan and in the players who were on the roster to execute it, and those players still believed in the way he was putting together a plan and then calling the plays to implement it during the game.
Wanna know how you can tell the players had bought in it? Because they had started parroting his words when asked to speak about the offense in public.
"The dam is about to burst." That was Smith's message to them, and then those were the players' choice of words into live microphones when answering questions about it.
During their home opener, the dam didn't burst completely, but it sprung a few leaks. And then late in the second half the constant pounding created some cracks and it really started to lose its structural integrity.
"Sometimes it's easy to get frustrated, but you've got to look at the process, what's really (happening) on the ground, and not speak hypotheticals," said Smith on Sept. 19. "You know, the most encouraging thing is, are they getting the intent that we started with when Mike brought me in here. You know, you go back and you're constantly looking at what you're doing, how defenses are attacking you, how are they playing you. And there's been some impressive stuff by our line, especially in the run game, with our intent. Wearing people down, and it hadn't been perfect by any means, don't get me wrong, but I've just been through this enough, where you felt like you're getting close."
The defense presented by the Chargers would be the best the Steelers had faced in 2024, in fact the No. 2 unit in the NFL (Tennessee was No. 1, and the Steelers came in at No. 5, for comparisons sake). And the Steelers offense not only put up some representative statistics against that defense, but it also out-performed the Chargers offense in the things that unit did best.
The Steelers converted a season best 50 percent on third down (7-of-14); ran 20 more plays than the Chargers (65-45); ran the ball more times (31-20) for more yards (114-61) and a higher average (3.7-3.1). In his third straight start, Justin Fields posted season bests in completion percentage (78.1), yards-per-attempt (7.66), and yards per completion (9.8). Fields also completed 6-of-10 for 68 yards on third downs, and those completions converted 5 of the 6 third down situations when Smith opted to throw.
And the unit's improvement was evident in areas other than the quarterback.
The offensive line still was without its best player (LG Isaac Seumalo) and No. 1 pick Troy Fautanu had been placed on injured reserve on the eve of the game vs. the Chargers. But on a day when temperatures reached the mid-80s in the sun (and it's not like there's a lot of shade on the floor of Acrisure Stadium), the Steelers offense waged a war of attrition and won.
The most dynamic plays in their passing attack came from Calvin Austin III and Scotty Miller, who arrived Sunday being perceived as bit players in the weekly George Pickens Show. We've been told for months that the Steelers are incapable of winning in the passing game with these wide receivers, but on a day when the opponent minimized Pickens' chances to impact the outcome, Austin and Miller made plays.
Among Austin's team leading 95 yards receiving was a 55-yard slant-and-goodbye for a touchdown, and on a drive ending in a 38-yard field goal that tied the game in the third quarter, he had a 25-yard catch-and-run on a third-and-14 that put the ball at the Chargers 17-yard line, which came after Miller's 11-yard catch that ended up being a 26-yard gain because of a 15-yard facemask penalty on the tackle. And on the Steelers touchdown drive in the first half, Miller had a 20-yard catch-and-broken-tackle-run that converted a third-and-4.
As for the running game, when the Steelers got the ball at their 32-yard line with 4:59 remaining in the fourth quarter and needing to protect a 20-10 lead, it had produced an anemic 45 yards on 24 attempts. Along the way there had been plenty of logical opportunities for Smith to abandon it and try something, anything, else. But he refused. In came rookie Mason McCormick as a sixth offensive lineman, and the Steelers went back to trying to work on that dam. Najee Harris (242 pounds) and Cordarrelle Patterson (232 pounds) kept slamming in behind those six O-linemen often joined by 264-pound tight end Darnell Washington, and the result was 69 yards on 7 attempts that moved the ball to a first-and-goal at the 1-yard line where Coach Mike Tomlin called it off with 3 snaps from victory formation as the clock expired.
There is no better feeling for an offense to be able to do that and no more helpless feeling for an opposing defense to be on the receiving end of it.
"We knew we were in for a fight," said Tomlin. "They're assembled like we're assembled, so we knew it was going to be a great game. They're playing great defense. We're playing great defense. We had to challenge our defense to out-perform theirs. I thought they did. We had a commitment to the run game. Obviously they came in with the league's leading rusher and the No. 1 rushing offense. Our offense had to out-rush theirs, and we did, and that's why the game unfolded the way it did."
It should be mentioned that the Steelers' version of playing great defense against the Chargers included a second half where they allowed minus-5 yards of total offense during 4 possessions that included a total of 15 plays and ended: punt, punt, punt, punt. But great defense, dynamic defense, team-carrying defense is nothing new for these Steelers. Been there, seen that. What the team got from the offense was something different.
Securing the victory was the most significant thing to come out of Week 3 of this regular season, but what the Steelers also could take from the afternoon's exercise is that their offense offered hope that it can be more than just along for the ride.
"I think we kind of knew," said Fields. "We knew what kind of game we were going to be in, and we knew that we didn't play well enough in the first half. We had a couple of miscues in the first half, and we knew we were better than that. Coach Tomlin challenged us at halftime to play better and be better, and we came out in the second half and did just that. It was good."
Real good actually, because it was progress.
