The 2 biggest issues facing the Steelers coming out of the bye and heading into Cleveland

There are plenty of areas where the Steelers can improve coming out of their bye week as they head into a crucial game against the Cleveland Browns on Sunday.

Let’s pick two. One on offense. One on defense.

One — theoretically — is fixable.

The other? I’m not so sure.

We’ll start with the one on offense. This is the fixable one.

Maybe.

On conversion down pass plays, the Steelers simply have to push the ball beyond the first down marker more often. Enough of this “catch short to run long” stuff.

They are doing plenty of the “catching short” part. Unfortunately, they aren’t running long enough, often enough.

They aren’t even falling forward far enough.

To be fair, the Steelers are converting 42.5% of their third downs. That’s good for 10th in the NFL. Throw in their 0 for 5 on fourth downs, though, and it’s not quite as impressive.

Two of those failed fourth downs were mysterious sideways throws to running back Najee Harris that failed miserably against the Cincinnati Bengals and Green Bay Packers. The one in Green Bay needed 4 yards to gain. It lost a yard. The one versus the Bengals also lost a yard when the Steelers needed 10.

In the win against Seattle before the bye, the Steelers were only 5 of 14 on third downs. Of those nine failed conversions, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger actually completed a pass on six of them. But the receiver couldn’t make it to the marker.

So — to be clear — six of those nine times, the offense did the hard parts. The quarterback got the snap. The receivers got open. The protection held up long enough. The quarterback delivered a catchable pass. The receiver caught the ball.

But they still couldn’t move the chains.

Oh, by the way, on two of the successful third down conversion passes, the receiver barely made it by a yard.

That has to change. And none of those attempts in the Seattle game appeared to be setups for potential fourth down snaps, as the Steelers didn’t try a fourth down conversion the entire game.

The Steelers offense simply has to evolve to the point where Roethlisberger is throwing the ball — successfully — beyond the chains on third downs more often. Opposing defenses need to be pushed back.

Currently, the Steelers are predictable throwing the ball short of the necessary yard line. So the receivers don’t have room to run because the defense is crowding in front of the yard marker. The defensive players aren’t threatened to cover very deep beyond the sticks.

Heading into the bye weekend, offensive coordinator Matt Canada acknowledged the issue. But he blamed his unit’s inability to make third down distances more manageable by gaining more yards on first and second down.

“In certain games, we’ve done a good job of that. In others, we haven’t, or (we) have had penalties. We’ve got to be better. We’ve got to not stop ourselves,” Canada said. “Time. Protection. Getting the ball out of your hand. The shorter the distance, the easier that is.”

Fair enough. Of Roethlisberger’s 14 pass attempts on third downs against the Seahawks, the average distance needed to get a first down was 7.5 yards. Not optimal. But averaging 8 air yards doesn’t strike me as too much of an ask for any NFL offense.

To underscore the point, one of the Steelers’ failed third down completions was a third-and-4 reception by Ray-Ray McCloud that only went for 3 yards. One of the successful conversions was a third-and-3 when Eric Ebron was barely able to eke out 4 yards.

Regardless, coach Mike Tomlin echoed Canada’s stance.

“The first evolution of any offense (is) to not be in third and long. So, I’m not going to move off of that acknowledgment,” Tomlin said.

Unfortunately, Tomlin’s offense is last in the NFL in yards per play on first down. He and Canada need a better answer than throwing it in front of the chains and hoping for the best.

The solution is to scheme better and execute more often. Easier said than done, of course.

But I don’t even have an idea for how to fix the Steelers’ biggest issue on defense. And I’m not sure the coaches do either.

The problem I’m discussing is figuring out a way to fill the voids left by veteran defensive linemen Stephon Tuitt and Tyson Alualu. Alualu broke his ankle in the second game of the season. Tuitt has yet to play this season due to a knee injury and a lost training camp while he was tending to family matters after the death of his brother.

In Tuitt, the Steelers lost 11 sacks from the left defensive end position last year, as well as a run-stuffing presence. In Alualu, the Steelers lost their starting nose tackle for run downs and a player that could capably rush in nickel and dime situations whenever Tuitt or Cameron Heyward needed a break.

With those two players out, defensive linemen aside from Heyward have combined for just 1.5 sacks. And opponents have averaged 127 yards rushing over the past three games. That would rank 24th in the NFL this year on a season-long pace.

“If you lose two guys like that, it is hard to replace them,” Tomlin said. “We’ve got some young guys that have to come along and step up. We’re working with them. We’ll continue to work with them. They have come along to a certain degree. But we need them to be a little bit better than they have.”

With second-year lineman Carlos Davis also injured and rookie Isaiahh Loudermilk getting thrown into the fire, Tomlin is asking for accelerated development from third-year player Isaiah Buggs.

“We are challenging Isaiah Buggs to step up and be a consistent varsity contributor. Opportunity is knocking for him due to the misfortune of Tyson,” Tomlin said.

Seattle churned out 144 yards on the ground. Butler was asked if the Seahawks “simply ran wherever Heyward wasn’t” during the second half.

“Of course. I would, too. I don’t blame ‘em,” Butler quipped.

Now comes the challenge of Cleveland’s rushing attack this Sunday. It’s the best in the league at 170.4 yards per game.

So maybe the best answer for this problem on defense is fixing the problem on offense. Complete a few more third down passes beyond the sticks and keep the Browns’ rushing attack on the sideline.

That should also go for every other opposing offense moving forward until Tuitt returns. Or until Butler and Tomlin can find a suitable replacement.