Tim Benz: Mike Tomlin wants Steelers offense 'fast and fluid' — there's 1 theory that may help

Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin offered an accurate assessment of his team’s offense during his weekly press conference.

“We’ve got to get that mojo that we had in the preseason, where we’re playing fast and fluid with confidence, individually and collectively. We’ve lost that, to be blunt, in the last several weeks,” Tomlin said Tuesday.

Tomlin mentioned needing to rediscover those “fast and fluid” characteristics a few times. To Tomlin’s point, you could use those words to describe only a few players on that offense right now.

Receiver George Pickens looked pretty fluid during Monday night’s grind of a win over the Cleveland Browns, especially during that 71-yard touchdown. Running back Jaylen Warren always looks like he is playing fast. But that’s about it.

The offensive line isn’t getting off the ball as fast as most opposing defenders. Najee Harris looks like he is running uphill in mud. The tight ends never get the ball enough to tell. And Calvin Austin, whose entire game is based on speed, hasn’t shown very much of it.

Then again, running laterally on jet sweeps all the time may not be the most effective way to show it off.

As for quarterback Kenny Pickett, it appears the opposite effect is happening to him. Through two starts this year it looks like the game is moving 10 times faster for him than it did during his rookie season of 2022. In a strange way, maybe the best way for us to see Pickett play faster is to let the game slow down in the pocket.

“That’s a good way of putting it,” Pickett said Wednesday. “I just want to get back to playing the offense that we know we could be. Balanced. Running the football, having the play action off it, getting guys the ball down the field. It just seems like we’re missing one element of each.”

More sports

• 'We're not executing right now': Steelers frustrated by another slow start to running game
• Hines Ward, James Harrison among 10 ex-Steelers nominated for Hall of Fame induction
• Steelers promote DT Breiden Fehoko, sign RB Godwin Igwebuike

Perhaps one way to regain that fluidity Tomlin is seeking and to goose his players into playing faster is to — quite literally — play faster.

What about implementing more uptempo? More no-huddle. More of a hurry-up approach we saw on that two-minute drive against San Francisco near the end of the first half during the season opener. It was the only drive that led to a score all day.

While Tomlin wasn’t necessarily talking about pace of play, he didn’t rule out the suggestion.

“When I’m saying ‘fast and fluid,’ I’m talking about in play, in decision making, in operation between downs. So, I’m talking (about) all of the above, certainly,” Tomlin said.

Some of the stats may not connote the need to pick up the pace. The Steelers are actually third in the NFL in seconds per play run (24.8). But they are only 27th in total number of plays run (114) and 31st in time of possession (23:34). So two defensive touchdowns against Cleveland and that one 12-play scoring drive in one minute 25 seconds against the 49ers are skewing those pace-of-play stats.

Pickett seems to embrace the idea of running more uptempo.

“That’s a way of trying to get into rhythm and keeping the defense on their heels. We mix it up a little bit. We could do more. That could be an option,” Pickett said.

It could. If offensive coordinator Matt Canada lets it be one.

Although I suppose the notion of running more of Canada’s questionable plays and concepts at a higher rate of speed could simply result in the punt team coming out on the field more often. That would result in less rest for the defense.

“We’ve got to understand what the defense is trying to do to our schemes, and then just execute from there. The first step there, first step here. We can see the big plays potentially on film that could happen. It’s just making sure we execute the little things,” tight end Pat Freiermuth said this week.

On the hopeful side, the Steelers offense is going from facing two of the best defenses in football in Cleveland and San Francisco to facing two mediocre ones in Las Vegas and Houston over the next two weeks.

When it comes to average yards per play allowed, the Browns are second in the NFL (3.7). The Niners are fifth (4.5). Meanwhile, the Raiders and Texans allow 5.4 yards per snap. That’s tied with a big swath of teams (which includes the Steelers) between 19th and 24th in the league.

If the Steelers can’t find that “mojo” Tomlin referenced over these next two weeks, that defense better find itself in scoring mode as it did twice against the Browns on Monday.

But I’m pretty sure relying on your defense to outscore your offense on a regular basis isn’t really a good formula to make it back to the playoffs.