This Big Ben Stat Tells Me The Steelers Have An Identity, And That It's Working

I was incredibly frustrated the first three weeks of this season because I just had no fucking clue who or what the Steelers were. I looked around our own division and saw exactly what those teams were, and how they had dedicated all their resources to being that. 

Baltimore - all in on the option run game with Lamar Jackson

Cleveland - all in on dominating the line of scrimmage, feeding Nick Chubb, and working play action

Cincy - all in on Joey B spreading teams out and going to work with Ja'Marr Chase

Steelers - ??? sputter around until we had to chuck it down the sideline on a hope and prayer

It was infuriating. I told my dad I just want us to commit to something. Well, it took us the first quarter of the season, but then came the Denver game and in Week 5 it seemed like they finally started to figure it out. 25-28 attempts from Big Ben and don't give up on feeding Najee. Since then, well, the stats above show it's working. No, Big Ben isn't lighting it up like Justin Herbert or Tom Brady, but the Steelers don't need to ask him to do that. Sure, it'd be a nice little icing on top of an already well forming cake if every few weeks he could throw the cape on and just be lights out from the pocket, but that's not the case at the moment. 

They finally have an identity, and those familiar with this team's history know it looks incredibly familiar to, like I've been saying since the beginning of the 2020 season, coming full circle to the start of Big Ben's career. That is this team's identity now. Score anywhere from 17-24 points a game and rely on your studs on defense to wreak havoc and shut down the opposing offense. 

Don't look now, but now these Steelers who have found themselves have back-to-back home games against Chicago and Detroit. Time to go on a run.