Welcome to the terrible take, a daily segment telling Steeler Nation what's on our minds.

I'm Melanie Freelander.

If you've been watching the Steelers play the past two weeks,

you know that the offense has been bad.

Not only does the unit look profoundly worse than the preseason,

but quarterback Kenny Pickett and the offensive line seemed to have actually regressed from the solid performances they put up at the end of 2022.

Remember in the off season when the plan was to play bully ball? So far it's Pittsburgh that has been getting

bullied. The rushing attack, if you want to be generous and call it that,

ranks 31st in the league with 96 yards over two games.

They're slightly better at 27th when it comes to yards per attempt.

Yes, they have faced two stout defenses so far, but this performance is obviously worse than anyone could have predicted.

When the Steelers take the field in Las Vegas tonight, their number one priority must be to establish the run. I am hopeful that they can do this against

a Raiders team that has given up 277 yards rushing to the Broncos and the Bills, with an average of 4.9 yards per attempt in the last two weeks.

If there was a chance for a bounce back performance for the offensive line in the running backs,

this is it, especially with the prediction that the crowd will be 60% Steelers fans in the Death Star.

And if the Steelers somehow can't establish the run,

they still need to act like they're going to run when they line up at Presnap.

Not every down, but at least a reasonable amount. The analytics say

that you don't need to establish the run for effective play action, but you do need the

opposing defense to think that you might actually be handing the ball off.

Play action has been one of Kenny Pickett's most to think that you might actually be handing the ball off.

Play Action has been one of Kenny Pickett's most successful tools this season,

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