The Pittsburgh Steelers and head coach Mike Tomlin seemed to have an offensive vision against the Cincinnati Bengals on Saturday evening. That was to run the ball over and over again. And at face value, that makes sense.
The Bengals finished the season allowing 2,122 yards (19th in the league) and 20 rushing touchdowns (24th). And they gave up 4.4 yards per carry. That should be a recipe for success for the Steelers. Unfortunately, the Steelers only managed to gain 74 yards on 23 carries Saturday. And they lost their fourth-straight game, 19-17.
But even more telling is that the Steelers were utterly predictable in the run game. Per Pro Football Reference, the Steelers ran the ball on their first nine first-down plays. They only switched to throwing the ball on first down late in the first half when they were trying to engineer a scoring drive to maximize getting the ball to start the second half. Once they started the second half, they then ran on three straight first downs again. That’s running on 12 of their first 15 first-down opportunities against the Bengals…