Originally Posted by
fordfixer
Steelers’ running game still work in progress
[URL]http://triblive.com/sports/steelers/2615484-85/yards-steelers-redman-carries-run-running-game-dwyer-season-team#axzz26t74KNFD[/URL]
By Alan Robinson
Published: Monday, September 17, 2012, 6:54 p.m.
Updated: Monday, September 17, 2012
This probably wasn’t what Steelers president Art Rooney II meant when he made it a priority to run the ball better this season.
Since the NFL merger in 1970, no team has run the ball like the Steelers, and it’s not even close. The Steelers are only 335 yards rushing away from becoming the first team to rush for 90,000 yards since the NFL and AFL became one league. No other team has reached 85,000 yards, although the Cowboys are close at 84,666.
Franco Harris (11,950 yards in a Steelers uniform) and Jerome Bettis (10,571 yards) had much to do with that statistic, but so did a mindset and commitment to the run regardless of the coach, be it Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher or Mike Tomlin. The Cardinals, by contrast, have more than 18,000 fewer yards during that span, the equivalent of 18 single 1,000-yard seasons.
While new offensive coordinator Todd Haley has tried to establish the run, it’s not working. At least not yet. The Steelers’ 2.6 yards per carry average ranks 30th in the league, and their 141 yards rank 28th; 14 players in the league have 144 yards or more by themselves.
“We’re kind of struggling right now,” said starting running back Isaac Redman, who has been limited to 45 yards on 23 carries. “But each game, we’re hoping to get better and better.”
Jonathan Dwyer took over more of the load during the 27-10 win over the New York Jets on Sunday, yet he was held to a team-high 28 yards on 12 carries as the Steelers ended with 66 yards on 28 carries, six for negative yardage. Redman had 20 yards on 12 carries against the Broncos.
While the Steelers also had only 141 yards at this stage of the 2009 season, they haven’t had fewer yards rushing in the first two games since 1990, the next-to-last season of Noll’s tenure. They had only 117 yards then, in part because they were held to 49 yards in a season-opening 13-3 loss to the Browns.
The Steelers (1-1) face an even worse running team Sunday in Oakland (0-2), which has only 68 yards rushing despite having Darren McFadden, who ran for 1,157 yards in 2010.
The Steelers haven’t had success running the ball despite splitting carries between two backs. What happens when former 1,000-yard rusher Rashard Mendenhall (knee) returns, probably after the bye week that follows the Raiders game?
“I have no clue,” Redman said.
Won’t having Mendenhall back require the carries to be split three ways, unless either Redman or Dwyer has his role downgraded?
“I guess that’s what they’re going to have to do,” Redman said.
The running game has been effective during only one stretch, the game-clinching 14-play drive Sunday that ended with Redman’s two-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter. Redman and Dwyer combined for 29 yards on seven carries, including a 10-yarder by Redman behind left guard Willie Colon.
“It felt good to get some positive carries,” Redman said. “I got tired of getting hit in the backfield. I just wanted to keep my head in there and not get frustrated.”
The same goes for an offensive line that is adjusting to having Colon at left guard — he moved from right tackle — and being without right guard David DeCastro, who injured a knee during the preseason and won’t return until sometime during the second half of the season.
Center Maurkice Pouncey said the drive felt like what Steelers football is supposed to be in the fourth quarter.
“It felt good to get on a roll like that, get guys moving up out of there and that’s what offensive linemen like,” Pouncey said.
The Steelers need to start having more drives like this one, if only to lessen the burden on Ben Roethlisberger and his receivers to generate most of the offense. The Steelers are 19th in passing; not great, but much better than their running game is doing.
“If you can run the ball, the linemen just love it,” Roethlisberger said.
They’re not alone.
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