When people talk about offensive balance, they often try to equate it with being 50/50 in a run-pass ratio.
But that's not exactly something that is sustainable -- or preferable -- in today's NFL.
The rules, despite an increase in both offensive pass interference and holding penalties, are set up for offenses to throw the ball.
The Steelers ran the ball 29 times in their 27-14 win Monday night against the Dolphins. They threw it 36 times -- 38 if you count a pair of sacks they gave up.
That's a 56-43 split, far preferable to the 67-33 pass-run split they had last season. Of course, that ratio was with Ben Roethlisberger at quarterback. With Mason Rudolph, that's not putting too much on his plate, while also putting enough on it to score in today's NFL.
And that was with Rudolph struggling mightily in the first quarter, when he started 1 of 7 for 14 yards with an interception. He completed 19 of 29 for 237 yards and two touchdowns the rest of the way.
That works.
Of course, it also helps to have the running game performing as it did in this one. The Steelers ran the ball for 158 yards, averaging 5.4 yards per attempt.
The Dolphins entered the game allowing 4.7 yards per carry this season. Next week's opponent, the Colts, allows an average of 4.8 yards per carry. So there's that.
• In the five games since acquiring Minkah Fitzpatrick, the Steelers are allowing opponents 293.2 yards and 16.8 points per game, including 230 and 14 Monday night to the Dolphins.
Yes, games against the Bengals and Dolphins have helped that average. But they've also faced, the 49ers, Chargers and Ravens in that stretch.
"He just loves football like I love football, and I can appreciate that," T.J. Watt told me. "He takes very good notes and practices like a true professional. He’s just very detail oriented. You can see it on game days."
The Steelers have forced 19 turnovers. Fitzpatrick has three interceptions and a forced fumble in five games. Devin Bush has accounted for six others. That's 10 turnovers in which those two new players have had a hand.
Add in the fumble recovery Steven Nelson got in this game, and that's 11 turnovers by the new guys.
"We’ve got a bunch of talent on this defense that can play different positions," Joe Haden told me. "We’ll see how it all fits, but the coaches can come up with a game plan and do whatever they want with us."
• Ramon Foster is a consummate professional and is still a good player. But there are things -- namely run blocking -- that B.J. Finney does better.
Foster is one of the leaders of this team and you never want to see a player get injured -- especially when it comes to concussions -- but it might be fortuitous that the injury comes on a short week.
It will be difficult for Foster to make it through concussion protocol on a short week and this game against the Colts might be a nice time to get Finney in the lineup in another game that will call for the Steelers to rely on a strong rushing attack.
Not that they couldn't do that with Foster in the lineup. But some of their best running games the past few years has been when Finney has been in there.
• This all assumes the Steelers will have enough running backs that they'll feel comfortable running the ball 30 to 35 times.
Jaylen Samuels will be back this week, but he's never handled that kind of workload. His career-high in carries is 19, which came in that 17-10 victory over the Patriots last season when he had a career-high 142 yards.
Of course, if Samuels is that effective, the Steelers might not have to run it 30 to 35 times.
Trey Edmunds has 10 career carries, nine of which came in one game in 2017 against the Bills while he was a member of the Saints. He did produce 48 yards and a touchdown in that game.
The Steelers aren't ready to write James Conner off for this game just yet. But if he doesn't play, Samuels and Edmunds have just 84 career carries.
• The NFL is out of control with its holding and offensive pass interference penalties.
There were 85 offensive pass interference penalties called all of last season (267 games). There have already been 58 offensive pass interference penalties called this season in 121 games.
There have been 409 offensive holding penalties called in 121 games. There were 735 in 267 games last season.
That means we're on pace for 128 offensive pass interference penalties and 902 holding penalties.
Is there anyone who thinks that's a good thing?
We've seen holding penalties negate big plays and we saw iffy downfield calls against Johnny Holton against the Ravens and Diontae Johnson against the Dolphins.
The one against Holton was more egregious than the call against Johnson, but does anyone really want receivers called for hand fighting with defensive backs? That happens all the time.
Now, the pass interference penalty called against Foster -- which had to be a first for a 320-pound player -- was a good call. But the rest of it? Let the players play.
The NFL has been all about increasing scoring because that's what fans want to see. This works in direct conflict with that.
• Mike Tomlin won a challenge. And he won it on the spot of a ball, which is more rare than seeing a unicorn.
I asked Tomlin, who hadn't won a challenge in three seasons, if he felt a weight lifted off his shoulders after getting this one right.
"I didn’t feel any better about that challenge than I do many of the ones that I lost," Tomlin said. "I felt good about it, but I felt good about the ones that I’ve lost. So, you never know what you’re going to get."
Tomlin had missed on 11 straight challenges and hadn't won once since Al Riveron took over replay duties at the start of the 2017 season.
But he had a good look right down the line of scrimmage at Ryan Fitzpatrick when he was stopped short on a fourth-and-1 run.
"I saw it from the field," Tomlin said. "You know, sometimes when you’re on the field and you’re at the line to gain, you have a perspective. So, I didn’t necessarily need the replay. I was on field level."
• The Steelers are now 3-4 with a chance to get to 4-4 at the halfway mark of the season. Nobody would have foreseen that after their 0-3 start.
And the Steelers aren't taking anything for granted.
"We’ve just got to keep climbing because 3-4 just gives us a chance to go 4-4," Cam Heyward said. "Then we’re at .500 and we’ll see what happens. It’s not guaranteed."
The Steelers need to at least earn a split of their next two games, both at home, against the Colts and Rams. If they can pull that off -- or better yet, go 2-0 -- they're truly back in it.
It would certainly help to beat the Colts since they're an AFC opponent, but it's not necessary if the Colts go on to win the AFC South, something that became more possible when the Texans' J.J. Watt was lost for the season.
Go 0-2 in these next two games and they probably need to win out to have a shot.
• At least Chris Boswell got that first miss of the season out of the way. It was a 54-yard attempt and it would have been nice to make.
But it won't do anything to shake Boswell's confidence.
And who would have thought after last season that the Steelers would have a big advantage over the Colts in that area going into this game. Adam Vinatieri is struggling mightily this season.
• The "rover" package the Steelers used with just Heyward on the field in their nickel with Vince Williams as an extra pass rusher worked well in this game to keep Heyward freed up.
Though he only had six tackles and one sack in the game, he did a nice job of freeing up other guys to pressure the quarterback.
But a defense with one 300-pound player on the field? That's an interesting twist.
It worked against Ryan Fitzpatrick. Can it work against a 231-pound quarterback, such as Jacoby Brissett?
We'll see.
• We all wanted to see Rosie Nix more involved in the offense, but two passes thrown his way? OK, that's interesting.
It actually wasn't a career-high for Nix, though. He twice had two passes thrown his way last season. He even caught two passes for 17 yards last season against the Panthers.
Nix played 20 snaps against the Dolphins. And here's to seeing more of that the rest of the way. But if he's going to be on the field, they've got to throw it to him every once in a while to keep defenses honest.
