Steelers continue to be haunted by struggles on opening possession of games

After a one-game reprieve of sorts, the Pittsburgh Steelers offense last week was back to its ineffective ways during its first possession of a game.

The Steelers’ first offensive drive Sept. 20 lasted 11 plays, traveled 63 yards and reached the Houston Texans’ 15-yard-line. But, in their next game against the Philadelphia Eagles last week, the Steelers gained 1 net yard.

That marked the third time in four games this season the Steelers failed to net more than 8 yards during their opening possession. The offense’s performance to start games in 2020 with Ben Roethlisberger back is reminiscent of its pitiful track record in such circumstances last season when Roethlisberger missed the final 14 games.

In the 20 games since the beginning of the 2019 season, the Steelers have managed just six points, 18 first downs and 255 net yards. To put that into perspective, the average game features roughly 11 possessions each, so the Steelers’ opening drives over the past two seasons equate to almost two full games of possession in which they managed just two field goals.

“The object is to score,” offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner said, “and we would like to score every series. Obviously, the first series is as important as ever, and we would like to try to score on the first series. We are going to keep working on it.”

Time of possession on the Steelers past seven possessions COMBINED (none ended in points):
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8 minutes, 41 seconds
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(avg of 1:14 per drive... 2 first downs in that time)

— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) November 11, 2019

The most recent time the Steelers scored a touchdown on their opening possession was Week 15 of the 2018 season against the New England Patriots. In the 22 games since, the only points they have managed are field goals Week 14 of last season at Arizona and this season against the Texans.

In 12 of the Steelers’ 20 games the past two seasons, they went three-and-out on their first offensive drive.

“Well, I’ll take scoring every time, and it doesn’t have to be those 14-play drives either,” Fichtner said. “We will take it in one. Starting fast is, obviously, something we talked about. We talked about it openly with our players.

“But the challenge, again, comes back to us. It comes back to a loss-yardage play here, maybe a penalty. It’s going to be hard to overcome the third-and-longs. And, generally, that is kind of what’s happened in the first series.”

Subtracting the two field-goal drives the past two seasons, the Steelers have 126 net yards and 10 first downs on their other 18 opening possessions.

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