The Pittsburgh Steelers entered Sunday’s game preparing to face one of the worst run defenses in the NFL in the Tennessee Titans, so of course they threw the ball 49 times, and planned a pass-heavy attack. Of course, the Titans also rank poorly in passing defense as well.
But according to Mike Tomlin, what they saw that they could do in the passing game, particularly the short passing game, was more tempting offensively than the opportunity to carry the ball, even though they entered the week as one of truly most balanced offenses in the league.
Sunday’s performance in which they threw the ball nearly twice as often as they ran the ball threw a bit of a wrench in that equilibrium, but that’s okay.