There's plenty of blame to go around on the Steelers' offense, which now ranks 25th of the NFL's 32 teams in passing yards, 29th in rushing yards and 28th in points. And when there's a quarterback in Mason Rudolph making his first NFL start, he deserves some slack.
Randy Fichtner's responsible for making life easier for Rudolph, but has he done that?
Let's take a closer look at the 24-20 loss to the 49ers, Sunday in Santa Clara, Calif., to find what's wrong with the passing offense:
Knowing Rudolph would face an aggressive pass rush, Fichtner drew up several plays to allow Rudolph to get the ball out of his hands quickly. But the problem was that the 49ers, like the Seahawks and Patriots before them, were looking for the underneath passes and the ground game.
Case in point: The Steelers' first receiver screen of the day, to JuJu Smith-Schuster, was crushed by a ready 49ers defense:
That plan backfired.
The 49ers sold out to stop the underneath routes, and any rushing attempts by James Conner. But Fichtner didn't just call those plays. Despite Rudolph only completing two passes that went further than one yard beyond the line of scrimmage, Fichtner did call plays that provided Rudolph options downfield.
In fact, on his first passing play, Rudolph was given two downfield options in Smith-Schuster and Vance McDonald. McDonald breaks open up the seam on a double move, but Rudolph doesn't see him and dumps down to Conner for no gain:
That's where I see Rudolph struggling the most. Options are provided in key situations, but Rudolph either commits too early to a read or misses the open man altogether.
My biggest critique of his game has been his adjusting to reads after the snap. Rudolph is good at identifying base looks from defenses and attacking the weaknesses they naturally show. But this is the NFL, and defenses are much more complex than Big 12 football.
Below is an example of one of the times Rudolph was fooled by the 49ers. It's third down and the 49ers have seven potential rushers in the box. The three players to Rudolph's left are all at the line looking ready to rush, while the four players to his right have two backed-off defenders and only two looking like they'll actually rush.
Rudolph sees this and makes his predetermined target Diontae Johnson on a shallow cross to throw behind the blitz he thinks is coming from his left. But once the ball is snapped, two of those three rushers drop into coverage and flood the area around Johnson, while the other side blitzes all four defenders.
Look to that side where the blitz comes from and you can see how wide open McDonald was on his short out:
This goes back to what I wrote about Ben Roethlisberger's issues with identifying defensive looks. Fichtner has to work with his quarterbacks to teach them the tools to better identify disguised defenses and other looks. Get Rudolph his play faster so he's at the line quicker. Then have him use motion and fake snaps to see if he can get the defense to tip their hand.
Go back and look at those blitzers on the above play that come from Rudolph's right. Both start creeping to the line right before the ball is snapped. Had Rudolph faked the snap they would've jumped to the line and tipped their blitz look, allowing him to adjust to the play and throw behind their blitz.
The other key Fichtner has to help Rudolph with is getting the ball to the Steelers' best playmakers. Sometimes receivers weren't wide open, but they were in single coverage with the chance for a good contested catch if Rudolph gave them a shot. Yet, Rudolph often struggled to pull the trigger.
But when he did, you saw fireworks. Here's Smith-Schuster's 76-yard touchdown catch and run. Notice how close he's covered over the middle and how Rudolph still gives him a shot to catch the ball. Once he has it, he does the rest in spectacular fashion:
Rudolph may be too tentative to throw into tighter coverage, trying not to lose the game with a risky pass. But when there's single coverage, that's when he has to take his shot and trust his matchups, if he's got his top receiver in a position to win.
If the Steelers are really not going to 'live in their fears,' as Mike Tomlin always says, they need to convince Rudolph that he shouldn't fear opening up his passing game. Sling it. Fichtner might have given him the Xs and Os on play calls to take those shots, but this week in practice he has to convince Rudolph to have conviction to take his shots and succeed on those big throws.
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MORE CLASSROOM
Sept. 24: Barron slow to the punch
Sept. 23: Gassed, gashed run defense
Sept. 20: Fix the run with the pass
Sept. 19: Nelson’s lockdown start
