Labriola on the win against the Chargers

Arthur Smith originally came to Pittsburgh because he had been offered a job he wanted, with a franchise he respected, and by a head coach who thought likewise. Through the first two weeks of the regular season, he was part of a team that began with back-to-back road games and emerged 2-0. But the offense, his offense had scored just 1 touchdown in 21 possessions, and those kinds of numbers look bad. The field goal kicker had made 8 of 8, so they had given the excellent defense enough of an edge, but the results did not match the work that had been put in daily since training camp began on July 23.

But as the final preparations were being made for the first home game on Sept. 22 against the equally undefeated Los Angeles Chargers, Smith still believed in the plan and the players on the roster who would execute it. And those players still believed in the way he developed a plan and then called the plays during the game to execute it.

Want to know how you can tell the players fell for it? Because they started parroting his words when asked to speak publicly about the offense.

“The dam is about to break.” That was Smith's message to them, and those were the words the players chose into live microphones when answering questions about it.

During the first home game, the dam didn't completely break, but it did have a few leaks. Towards the end of the second half, the constant pounding caused some cracks and the dam really started to lose its structural integrity.

“It's easy to get frustrated sometimes, but you have to look at the process, what's really happening on the ground, not talk hypothetically,” Smith said on Sept. 19. “You know, the most encouraging thing is whether they understand the intent that we started with when Mike brought me here. You know, you go back and you constantly look at what you're doing, how the defense is attacking you, how they're playing against you. And there was some impressive stuff from our line, especially in the run game, with our intent. Wearing people down, and it wasn't perfect by any means, don't get me wrong, but I've just been through that enough times where you feel like you're getting closer to the goal.”

The Chargers defense would be the best the Steelers have ever faced in 2024, in fact the No. 2 defense in the NFL (Tennessee was No. 1 and the Steelers came in at No. 5 for comparison). And the Steelers offense not only put up some representative statistics against that defense, but also outperformed the Chargers offense at the things that unit did best.

The Steelers converted 50 percent of their third downs (7 of 14), a season high. They ran 20 more plays than the Chargers (65-45), ran the ball more often (31-20), and gained more yards (114-61) and a higher average (3.7-3.1). In his third straight start, Justin Fields posted season highs in passes completed (78.1), yards per attempt (7.66) and yards per pass completed (9.8). Fields also completed 6 of 10 for 68 yards on third downs, converting 5 of the 6 third downs on which Smith chose to throw.

And the unit's improvement was clearly visible in areas other than the quarterback.

The offensive line was still without its best player (LG Isaac Seumalo) and No. 1 pick Troy Fautanu had been placed on the injured list the night before the game against the Chargers. But on a day where temperatures reached 30 degrees in the sun (and it's not like there was much shade on the Acrisure Stadium floor), the Steelers offense waged a war of attrition and won.

The most dynamic plays in their passing attack came from Calvin Austin III and Scotty Miller, who arrived Sunday and were seen as supporting players on the weekly George Pickens Show. For months, we've been told the Steelers can't win with these wide receivers in the passing game, but on a day when the opponent minimized Pickens' chances to affect the outcome, Austin and Miller made plays.

Austin's team-best 95 receiving yards included a 55-yard slant-and-goodbye pass that led to a touchdown, and on a drive that ended with a 38-yard field goal that tied the game in the third quarter, he had a 25-yard catch-and-run on third-and-14 that moved the ball to the Chargers' 17-yard line after Miller had made an 11-yard catch that ultimately resulted in a 26-yard gain due to a 15-yard facemask penalty on the tackle. And on the Steelers' first-half touchdown drive, Miller had a 20-yard catch-and-broken tackle run that led to third-and-4.

As for the running game, when the Steelers got the ball at their 32-yard line with 4:59 left in the fourth quarter and had to defend a 20-10 lead, it was a measly 45 yards on 24 attempts. Along the way, Smith had many logical opportunities to leave the ball and try something, anything, different. But he declined. Freshman Mason McCormick came in as the sixth offensive lineman, and the Steelers tried to work on that dam again. Najee Harris (242 pounds) and Cordarrelle Patterson (232 pounds) repeatedly pushed behind those six O-linemen, often joined by 264-pound tight end Darnell Washington, and the result was 69 yards on 7 attempts that brought the ball to a first-and-goal at the 1-yard line, where coach Mike Tomlin called the play off after 3 snaps from the Victory Formation as the clock ran out.

There is no better feeling for an attacker than to be able to do so, and there is no more helpless feeling for the opposing defense to suffer as a result.

“We knew we were in for a battle,” Tomlin said. “They're set up the way we are, so we knew it was going to be a great game. They play great defense. We play great defense. We had to challenge our defense to be better than them. I thought they accomplished that. We were committed to the run game. Obviously, they came with the best runner in the league and the best run offense. Our offense had to be better than theirs, and we accomplished that, and that's why the game went the way it went.”

It should be noted that the Steelers played a great defense against the Chargers in the second half, allowing minus-5 yards of offense on 4 possessions totaling 15 plays that ended in punt, punt, punt, punt. But great defense, dynamic defense, team-carrying defense is nothing new for these Steelers. We've seen it before. What the team got out of the offense was something else.

The win was the most important thing to come out of Week 3 of the regular season, but the Steelers also took away from this afternoon's practice that their offense gave reason to hope that it could be more than just a contender.

“I think we kind of knew,” Fields said. “We knew what kind of game we were going to face, and we knew we didn't play well enough in the first half. We made a couple mistakes in the first half, and we knew we were better. Coach Tomlin challenged us at halftime to play better and be better, and that's exactly what we did in the second half. It was good.”

Actually, it was a good thing because it was progress.