Tim Benz: Steelers can now use positive reinforcement for run game — on both sides of the ball

When the Pittsburgh Steelers were scuffling at 1-3, there was plenty of room for negative reinforcement from the coaching staff if it decided to go that route.

“Here is what you are doing wrong. Go fix it.”

Well, some of that must’ve worked, as the Steelers have won three in a row to improve to 4-3.

Perhaps at this point, the Steelers coaches can approach things from the opposite end of the spectrum.

“See what you’ve done well lately? Keep doing that.”

Simple concept, right? But there’s more to it than a basic explanation such as that. Especially when it comes to the run game. On both sides of the ball.

On Oct. 3, when the Steelers lost to the Green Bay Packers 27-17 to fall to 1-3, they were outrushed 131-62. They had been outrushed in each of their first three games by a total of 265-159.

Since then, during the three-game win streak, the Steelers have had the rushing edge on their opponents 381-346. That’s despite a 144-119 deficit against the Seattle Seahawks in Week 6.

Most notably, the Steelers gained 115 yards on the ground against the Cleveland Browns last week, while only allowing 96 yards rushing. That’s despite the fact that the Browns came into the game as the NFL’s best rushing team and second-best against the run.

Whatever attention to detail is being paid in the trenches of late appears to be reaping rewards.

“We’ve just got to keep harping on it,” said defensive captain Cameron Heyward Thursday. “You are happy that you did well. But let’s see if we can continue to do well. Let’s see if we can continue to build on it. Staying in our gaps. Understanding what happens when you fall short. Understand it is an 11-man job.”

From a coaching standpoint, though, offensive coordinator Matt Canada says there is a tangible benefit to being able to point out positive strides that are being made in a run game that ranked last in 2020, 29th in 2019 and 31st in 2018.

“We’ve got to continue to improve our running game. Improve everything,” Canada said. “But we are making some steps. Starting to see a little bit more of what we want to be.”

Admittedly, at 86 yards per game, the rushing offense is still only 28th in the NFL. Not to mention, it only averaged 3.6 yards per carry against the Browns en route to a 15-10 victory. Strangely, that was probably a good thing in the sense that even though the rush offense wasn’t netting a huge return on a play-to-play basis, it was grinding down the Browns and getting the job done.

It was keeping the Browns offense on the sideline. The running game was preventing the need for Ben Roethlisberger to drop back often and expose himself to a pass rush that included Myles Garrett and Jadevon Clowney.

In other words, the running game wasn’t pretty. But it served multiple specific, important purposes. After seeing a key AFC North win go up on the board as a result, maybe Roethlisberger and company will buy into the “slow and steady wins the race” approach with the run game when the moment demands.

“That’s the formula that coach (Mike Tomlin) has set out,” Canada continued. “We are looking to be a balanced offense. Some games, if they just want to pack the box and stop the run, you have to be able to throw it. But we want to run the football and have a physical attack to our offense.”

The message is the same on defense for coordinator Keith Butler’s unit. After the rush game nightmare against the Seahawks, the Steelers drilled run game defense fundamentals going into their meeting against the vaunted Cleveland rush attack.

And it worked, as the Browns’ total of 96 rushing yards was only the second time all year the club was held below 150.

“It helps if you can exhibit that,” Butler said. “It shows up on film. They start to believe it a little bit. It makes our jobs a lot easier.”

Hopefully, for the Steelers, that positive run game reinforcement spills over to Monday night against the Chicago Bears. They have the sixth-best rush attack in the NFL at 136.6 yards per game.

But they can be had on the ground defensively, yielding 125 per game. That’s 24th in the NFL.

Consistency in the run game on both sides of the ball could go a long way toward the Steelers finding some sort of niche in the increasingly jumbled AFC.