Najee Harris said that the Steelers finding their identity was one of the main reasons for the offense's breakthrough performance Sunday in Cincinnati.
So, what is the Steelers' offensive identity?
"Running the ball," Harris told the media on Wednesday.
It's hard to argue with Pittsburgh's former Pro Bowl running back. The Steelers have averaged 174 rushing yards per game over their past four outings and have gone over 150 yards on the ground in each game. Pittsburgh is 3-1 over that span.
On Sunday, Harris rushed for 99 of Pittsburgh's 153 yards on the ground. His success helped the Steelers accumulate over 400 yards of offense for the first time in three years.
"We were just executing really well," Harris said. "We kind of have our identity has an offense. We know that, and it's more easier to play."
Pittsburgh's offense is unique in that it has two backs that have integral roles. Harris is still the vocal point on the running game, while Warren has adopted more of a Swiss Army Knife role. Together, the duo has amassed 1,140 rushing yards (with a 4.83 yards-per-carry average), seven touchdown runs and 1,503 all-purpose yards through 11 games.
Pittsburgh hasn't had this much of an equal split between backs since Amos Zereoue and Jerome Bettis had almost the same amount of carries during the 2002 season. Before that, Bam Morris and Erric Pegram divvied up the workload while helping the 1995 Steelers reach the Super Bowl.
While the workload wasn't very even, Bettis and Willie Parker are considered the Steelers' second-most prominent running back duo in franchise history behind Franco Harris and Rocky Bleier, who in 1976 became the second pair of teammates to both run for over 1,000 yards in a season. In 2005, Bettis and Parker helped the Steelers become the first sixth seed to win the Super Bowl.
Complementary skillsets was something each of those duos had in common. Bettis, for example, was a power back, while Parker possessed blazing speed. Harris and Warren, however, have similar skillsets.
"Sometimes when you have a two-back system, there's a bright line regarding the division of labor," Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said earlier this week. "One guy is an inside guy. One guy is an outside guy. And so, to be able to balance what one guy does and another guy does. This is a little bit different, to be quite honest with you. Both guys do really kind of everything.
"And so, what it is is that you're dealing with the entire playbook, and you're just simply dealing with fresh backs all the time. And so, that's challenging from a defensive perspective, certainly, but in most two back circumstances, there's usually a division of labor in terms of the type of runs that you get that's deferring, that's an asset to a defense or a defensive play caller. But not so in this case."
Harris and Warren's versatility and similar skillsets gives the Steelers something no other NFL offense has. The duo's success will only increase if quarterback Kenny Pickett mimics the type of performance he had Sunday in Cincinnati moving forward.
