close

Red-zone struggles continue

By Herald Standard Staff 3 min read

NEW ORLEANS – There it was again, for the nation and the rest of the National Football League to witness. First-and-goal at the opponent’s half-yard line. Three plays later, the ball was at the New Orleans’ 1-yard line and Jeff Reed kicked a field goal.

Remember last season, when the Steelers had a 1,100-yard rusher, but couldn’t pick up a simple yard or two with games on the line? One by one, fourth-quarter leads evaporated into come-from-ahead losses.

All of that conspired to keep the Steelers home for the playoffs and it almost got offensive coordinator Bruce Arians fired. Instead, the Steelers kept Arians and he and coach Mike Tomlin vowed to get the running game back on track.

In case you missed last night’s show of red zone ineptitude, Saints coach Sean Payton succeeded in taking four points off the scoreboard. He challenged Roethlisberger’s 12-yard touchdown pass to Antwaan Randle El and got it changed (corrected) to an 11-yard gain to the half-yard line.

Three runs later, the Steelers settled for Jeff Reed’s 19-yard field goal and a 3-0 Steelers lead. Not coincidentally, that was Pittsburgh’s last lead of the game.

You don’t think those four points would have come in what was a three-point game late in the fourth quarter? Even when the Saints stretched it to a 20-10 advantage, 20-14 would have kept the game winnable.

The Saints goal-line stand set the tone for them early in the second quarter, but it also put on film what neither Tomlin nor Arians can afford to have out here on film.

The Steelers showed on three straight plays that they can’t run the football when they need to. Isaac Redman lost a yard on first down and Rashard Mendenhall gained one and was stopped for no gain on the next two plays.

Pittsburgh problems in the running game were a bit disguised by the halftime stats, which showed the Steelers with a respectable 60 yards on 16 carries. But three of those runs gained 18, 15 and 9 on first-down plays, while the ones that counted most, those near the Saints goal line, gained a net of zero on three tries. Even Mendenhall’s 38-yard TD run came on a first-down play and was not a red zone play.

It was shades of 2009, when the Steelers suffered a five-game losing streak. It also brought back memories of the 2010 training camp, when Pittsburgh spent plenty of time working on its red zone offense.

It looked great when they were running it against themselves in training camp practices. But the first time this season the Steelers really needed a red-zone touchdown, they couldn’t get one.

And the rest of the league knows it.

Sports editor Mike Ciarochi may be reached at mciarochi@heraldstandard.com.

CUSTOMER LOGIN

If you have an account and are registered for online access, sign in with your email address and password below.

NEW CUSTOMERS/UNREGISTERED ACCOUNTS

Never been a subscriber and want to subscribe, click the Subscribe button below.

Starting at $4.79/week.

Subscribe Today