Why the Steelers Offense Was Better Than It Looked in a 20-13 Win Over Atlanta

On paper, it reads like another grind-it-out Steelers win carried mostly by the defense — and T.J. Watt's 35-yard pick-six of Cam Rush in the fourth quarter certainly did the heavy lifting on the scoreboard. But a closer look at the box score shows an offense that did far more good work than its modest point total suggests, and that got hurt by a handful of self-inflicted wounds rather than any fundamental lack of execution.

Pittsburgh's offense finished with 264 total yards on 64 plays (4.1 yards per play) and produced only one offensive touchdown, a 6-yard Aaron Rodgers-to-Pat Freiermuth strike late in the second quarter. Take away the defensive score, and the offense "only" accounted for 13 points. For a unit that controlled the ball for nearly 29 minutes, that looks like inefficiency in the red zone and beyond.

Except the details tell a different story: Rodgers was accurate and protected. He completed 24 of 41 passes for 221 yards, but the underlying process marks were strong — 26 of his 34 catchable throws were rated on target, and he was operating from a clean pocket most of the day (2.625 seconds of average pocket time, with only two sacks and five hurries allowed against him). This wasn't a passing game that survived on scramble drills or chaos; it was a veteran quarterback working within structure.

The catch-and-run game was humming. Of Pittsburgh's 221 receiving yards, 121 came after the catch — well over half. That's a strong indicator of scheme design and skill players creating extra yardage rather than the offense relying purely on downfield shots. The completion numbers back this up: Rodgers' average depth of throw (air yards divided by attempts) was modest, meaning the Steelers were consistently getting the ball out quickly and letting receivers work.

First downs were plentiful. Pittsburgh picked up 15 total first downs — 10 through the air, three on the ground, and two more via penalty — against an Atlanta defense that also forced four three-and-outs. Sustaining that many drives against a defense that was getting stops nearly half the time speaks to a offense that was moving the chains more than the touchdown count implies.

If the process was solid, what kept this from being a laugher? Three specific factors:

Penalties killed drive rhythm. The Steelers were flagged seven times for 52 yards. Even though two of those went for automatic Pittsburgh first downs, presigned penalties are far more often drive-killers than drive-extenders, and several likely wiped out positive gains that don't show up anywhere except a shortened drive chart.

The run game never got going. Twenty-one carries produced only 58 yards (2.8 yards per carry), with two carries for -5 yards mixed in. That's the one real soft spot in an otherwise functional day — Pittsburgh couldn't lean on the ground game to control the clock the way its 28:53 time of possession advantage suggests it wanted to. Three of those 21 carries were also kneel-downs to end the game, meaning the "live" rushing performance was even thinner than the raw total implies.

Drops and one costly fumble. Pittsburgh had two dropped passes and lost a fumble on the receiving end of a catch, its only turnover of the day. In a game this close, one bad break like that matters — it's the difference between an offense that finishes drives and one that hands the opponent extra field position or opportunities.

A common assumption after a 20-13 game with only one offensive touchdown is "they couldn't finish in the red zone." The data doesn't fully support that. Pittsburgh only got into scoring range with real red-zone pass attempts (five) a handful of times, and converted one of those into the Freiermuth touchdown plus multiple Chris Boswell field goals (2 of 3 on the day, including a 43-yarder). The issue wasn't repeated red-zone failure — it's that the offense simply didn't generate as many red-zone trips as the yardage and first-down totals might suggest, in part because of the penalties and drops mentioned above eating into drives before they got that deep.

Strip away the touchdown-return points and focus on the underlying indicators — completion accuracy, pocket time, yards after catch, first downs, and time of possession — and this was an offense playing a controlled, low-mistake brand of football against a divisional-style, physical Atlanta defense. Rodgers looked comfortable, the pass-catchers were productive after the catch, and the offensive line largely held up. The missing pieces were a functional run game and cleaner execution on the margins (penalties, drops, the one fumble).

None of that will show up boldly in a 20-13 final score dominated by a defensive touchdown, but it's a more encouraging sign for Pittsburgh's offensive trajectory than the box score headline suggests — particularly with a road trip to New England on deck next week.