Randy Fichtner, Mike Tomlin deserve credit for changing up the offense vs Cincinnati

Offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner took a lot of criticism last week for the continued struggles on offense through the Steelers’ first three games. They hadn’t been able to run the ball effectively and could not find a way to threaten defenses down the field through the air.

The criticism of Fichtner came to an all-time high on Friday when he criticized Mason Rudolph for not taking some shots down the field against the 49ers. Many saw it as the coach throwing his second-year quarterback under the proverbial bus.

Fichtner has been worthy of criticism so far this season. Having a young quarterback is an easy alibi for the coaching staff to hide behind, but the offense struggled for the six quarters that Ben Roethlisberger was at the helm. There had been very little creativity in the offense in the Steelers’ three losses, along with what many dubbed as a conservative offense.

Another strong criticism of Fichtner was not properly utilizing the talent at his disposal. James Conner ran over 35% of his carries outside the tackles when he is clearly a better runner inside. An even more puzzling decision was the lack of utilizing Jaylen Samuels in the offense, who did not touch the ball once in San Francisco. For a team that was struggling to run the ball, the coaching and personnel decisions were worthy of questioning.

Going into Monday night’s contest with Cincinnati, it was clear that Fichtner was going to change things up. Much of the offense was centered around Conner and Samuels. It was clear their focus was going to heavily rely on those two. They utilized the duo in the running game, passing game, and even deployed the wildcat seven times.

The wildcat proved to be a good change of pace for the offense. They gained 46 yards on the seven times they ran it, along with producing a Jaylen Samuels touchdown run. Even when the team wasn’t using the wildcat, they deployed jet sweeps and other pre-snap motions to disguise things on offense.

When asked about the usage of the wildcat going forward, head coach Mike Tomlin didn’t sound too confident in saying that it will become an integral part of their offense. Of course, Tomlin won’t show all of his cards going into another AFC North battle with Baltimore this week, but the use of the wildcat gives opposing teams another wrinkle to prepare for going forward.

Those extra wrinkles is what Randy Fichtner, along with Mike Tomlin, deserve credit for this week. Despite how people feel about the wildcat and how unsuccessful it has been for long stretches for other teams in the past, it helped the Steelers show different looks to keep a defense on its heels. Ultimately, it helped the Steelers win a critical game within the division.

Despite their 1-3 record, the Steelers escaped September 1-0 in the division and 1-1 in the AFC. For a team playing in a weak division, those numbers can’t be overlooked.

In his press conference on Tuesday, Mike Tomlin admitted the wildcat was also utilized to help limit Mason Rudolph’s usage. He acknowledged he still has growing to do, but they also expect him to grow every week.

Mason Rudolph deserves credit for the decisions he made in the game as well. He threw a lot of check down passes, but Cincinnati continually gave him the room underneath to hit those check downs and gain small chunks of yards on them. Eventually, the defense got caught in coverage and Rudolph was able to hit Diontae Johnson for a 43-yard touchdown pass.

Mike Tomlin and Randy Fichtner are obviously protecting Rudolph early on and they found a way to do that this week and get a win at the same time. Over time as Rudolph becomes more comfortable, it would not be a shock to see the coaching staff open up the offense as the season progresses.

It’s unclear, and now, it’s not nearly as easy to speculate where the Steelers’ offense goes from here, and that’s why Fichtner deserves credit for this win. He showed the opposing defense many different looks and utilized his players well.

It wasn’t a perfect performance by any means. There’s room to grow for the entire offense and get the likes of JuJu Smith-Schuster more involved in the offense as well. They will eventually have to start trying to take the tops off of defenses and threaten them down the field. They won't be able to beat the better teams in the AFC with gimmicks like the wildcat or throwing check downs.

For now, they beat a bad Cincinnati team by 24 points. They did what they needed to do to win, and were willing to shake things up a bit and add some wrinkles and creativity to the offense. Now, on to the next challenge against Baltimore.