PHOTO BY JARED WICKERHAM/PITTSBURGH STEELERS

The Steelers brought Russell Wilson here specifically with nights such as Saturday night in mind. They need to trust him to be who they thought he was in Baltimore.

That once-obvious trust between the been-there-done-that quarterback and a quarterback-starved coaching staff is clearly fractured. It needs to be repaired if the Steelers are to survive the Ravens.

As recently as Dec. 1 in Cincinnati, the Steelers let Russ cook and the results were what they’d envisioned all along. Knowing they had to outscore Joe Burrow and the Bengals, the Steelers came out throwing. So committed were the Steelers to that strategy that they threw on their first three offensive snaps. And so complete was their trust in Wilson that they kept throwing even after his third attempt was intercepted and returned for a touchdown that created an early 7-0 deficit.

What transpired after that was narrative-changing for the Steelers, or so it seemed after Wilson threw for 414 yards and the offense accounted for 37 points in a 44-38 shootout triumph.

But when the same two teams reconvened last Saturday night at Acrisure Stadium, the Steelers game plan turned out to be 180 degrees from what had worked so well in Cincinnati.

The Steelers came out running and kept running. They ran on first down nine consecutive times until a possession commenced with 1:10 minutes remaining in the second quarter. They ran it 16 times and attempted just eight passes in a first half that ended with the Steelers trailing, 13-7. They opened the third quarter with a run-run-pass kick series that was as predictable as it was ineffective, and followed up with two more runs on first down after that.

They ended up getting what they deserved in a 19-17 defeat but in the aftermath a couple days later Coach Mike Tomlin betrayed why they stayed so committed to an approach that clearly wasn’t working.

“For us, it’s about playing to a personality that we prescribe to engineer victory, to possess the ball,” Tomlin maintained. “And a component of possessing the ball is not only time, but managing risk. And obviously, there’s less risk with running the football than throwing it.”

It’s time to get back to letting Wilson do the risk-managing while he’s playing quarterback, as opposed to trying to coordinate it from the sideline.
Wilson didn’t need to be risk-managed by the game plan initially when he was going 6-1 through his first seven starts, when the offense was averaging 28.4 points per game and generating 372.1 yards per game, 239.1 of which were coming through the air.

But since then the turnovers have mounted, as have the losses.

The disappearance of the offense isn’t all on Wilson. He’s been let down at times by wide receiver George Pickens being either unavailable or out to lunch and by the offensive line.
But the final drive against the Bengals shined a light on Wilson’s contribution to this potentially fatal crisis of faith.

Throwing a short pass to running back Najee Harris for a negative play when throwing at Harris’ feet would have stopped the clock, running for a relatively useless 3 yards when throwing the ball away would have stopped the clock, and the misfire to Pickens that could have won the game in the final minute — those are all on Wilson.

So was his decision not to slide and settle for a first-and-goal at the end of a long run on Dec. 21 in Baltimore (Wilson instead tried to score and fumbled). And so was the ill-advised pass to tight end MyCole Pruitt that turned into a pick-six and helped Baltimore put the game away the last time the Steelers played the Ravens.

But that was then and this is now. And if the Steelers are going to go anywhere in the playoffs, it’s going to have to be Wilson leading the way.

The idea shouldn’t be to throw it 50 times in Baltimore. But throwing on first down once in a while wouldn’t hurt (Mike Tomlin should remember his long-standing commitment to being thoughtfully non-rhythmic). It might even keep the Steelers out of third-and-forever with regularity.

Whatever the run/pass ratio winds up being, distribute the labor in a manner that reflects an intent for Wilson to make plays, not merely protect the football.

The latter was appropriate when the quarterback was Kenny Pickett or Mitch Trubisky. This is an occasion that demands the Steelers take a leap of faith and allow Wilson to justify the reason he was summoned.

It might not get done, anyway. But trying to risk-manage the postseason will lead only to the offseason. If they’re going to go down, better to at least go down swinging.

Mike Prisuta is the sports anchor/reporter for Randy Baumann and the DVE Morning Show. He’s also the host of the Steelers Radio Network Pregame Show and the color analyst for Robert Morris University men’s hockey broadcasts.