In Pittsburgh, the performance of the offense has become a major early-season focal point. Despite a healthy smattering of weapons, the performance isn’t there.
And so the questions have come. Is it the play caller, Matt Canada? Is it the quarterback, Mitch Trubisky? Is it the offensive line?
Asked by a reporter on Friday about the comfort level of the offense given the questions about Canada and Trubisky, running back Najee Harris was blunt.
“I think it’s just the social media and the interviews or interviewers like you guys, not trying to put you guys in that category, you guys are just making the — just kind of breaking us apart in a way,” Harris said. “Because you guys keep asking questions like this. Like we’re at a point where we’re building right now. We’re working on it. But you guys come in here and ask questions of all the receivers and all the guys and Mitch about what is not working. That’s not how you build, and that’s not how you get better. You guys are breaking us up, and we need to find a way where we can just stay together and come together as a team and focus on what needs to matter most. Play calling . . . all that is fine. It’s just us executing. You guys keep blaming other people, it’s us in this locker room. We all need to come together and focus on what we need to improve on. Every week, every day we go out to practice. It’s not going to be perfect, but as long as the trajectory is going forward, that’s all that matters.”
Earlier in his session with reporters, Harris tried to deflect blame for the running game from the offensive line.
“I just need to trust them more,” Harris said. “We got some really good guys. They’ve done a really good job of getting better, and they are good. We do have a good O-line. Too much I see in social media and all that is, you know, how bad they talk about our O-line, but it’s not. You know, I mean it’s me. So we need to just stop focusing on them, start focusing on me.”
Harris has only 128 rushing yards through three games, and he’s averaging 3.2 yards per carry. He has another 48 receiving yards, on 10 catches.
The Steelers rank 31st in total offense, with only 818 yards. Harris may not like the questions that the players are getting, but with that kind of performance, the questions won’t be stopping, simply because he thinks they’re breaking the offense apart.