The Pittsburgh Steelers did themselves absolutely no favors during their Week 2 win over the Denver Broncos, as the team routinely shot itself in the foot with penalties, especially on the offensive side of the ball.
The most glaring example of this came on the third drive of the game, when right tackle Broderick Jones committed a trio of penalties to blow up a drive. One of them, a holding, negated what was a beautiful 51-yard pass from quarterback Justin Fields to wide receiver George Pickens. Jones was benched for his lackluster showing.
Through two games, the Steelers have a whopping 19 penalties, which ranks second in the NFL behind AFC North foe, the Cleveland Browns, who have 24, according to NFLPenalties.com.
Steelers running back Najee Harris addressed Pittsburgh's issue with penalties over the first two games and didn't hold back.
"We aren't being conservative," Harris said, according to Mark Kaboly. "We are just (expletive) ourselves. We make a play and get a penalty that pushes us back and gets us off schedule. The plays you want to run you can't run anymore because it is second-and-12. If you take away those penalties, the stat sheet looks better."
Harris also didn't mince words about the offense in general.
“We had to take what they gave us,” he said. “They were playing one-high (safety) all game. It’s tough for the running backs but s---, we just have to execute on these passes … it’s the same s---. We just have to execute.”
Thankfully, the Steelers have seen an incredible effort from the defense over two games or else they could very well be 0-2. What the offense has put out thus far simply won't be enough to compete with better teams.
