The Pittsburgh Steelers are 2-2 heading into their Week 5 matchup against the AFC North leading Baltimore Ravens and the team is far from where anyone in the building wants it to be. The Steelers' offense is clearly struggling, and there is blame being thrown around to many different areas of the team by frustrated fans.
While many are putting the current situation on coaches, specifically offensive coordinator Matt Canada, running back Najee Harris said it is no one person's fault.
Harris said the product on the field should be blamed on those actually on the field.
"The coaches only can coach," Harris said (via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). "At the end of the day, we have to do what we have to do. I see everybody talking about this coaching stuff, about play-calling, but bro, do y'all know how football works? Coaches only can coach. We've got to execute the plays."
Describing the way they are performing right now, Harris said, "Right now we're just playing soft."
Harris doubled down on his stance, saying using the coaches as an outlet for their problems is "stupid."
"We can say what we want, but like I said, players play, coaches coach. We can't just keep looking and pointing fingers. We've got to point at ourselves. It's the man in the mirror, really. This is the NFL. Everybody runs the same damn plays. Everybody disguises differently, but it's just how we're gonna play it. Truthfully, I think that we're just not playing with that edge right now. That's what we need to do better."
The running back said that right now, it's not about placing blame; it's just about playing better when it counts.
"We're not trying to point the finger at all. This is not the time to do that," the 25-year-old said. "It keeps being a conversation that's brought up or things that's talked about so much. It's crazy. We have to execute at the end of the day, no matter who's back there calling the plays. I honestly say that we're not doing it right now. It has nothing to do with coaches. It's just players. We have to play better."
So far this season, Harris has 49 carries for 210 yards, averaging 4.3 yards per attempt. He has no rushing touchdowns so far this year. The Steelers are currently 29th in the league in yards of offense.
Fortunately, Pittsburgh will likely have Kenny Pickett back after the quarterback missed the end of last week's game with a bone bruise suffered on a sack in the second half. Pickett said he will be "ready to go" by Sunday.
