Justin Fields gives an insightful message about the Pittsburgh Steelers offense

PITTSBURGH – The Pittsburgh Steelers finished Sunday Night Football with just 17 points and 222 total yards against a severely undermanned Dallas Cowboys defense, losing their second straight game. Justin Fields had his most difficult game as the Steelers' quarterback, throwing for just 158 ​​yards and adding just 27 yards on the ground.

Pittsburgh again had significant problems running the ball, averaging just 3.5 total yards per carry and failing to top 100 total yards in a game against one of the NFL's worst run defenses.

With that in mind, is there anything the Steelers can hold on to? Pittsburgh has tried unsuccessfully to get a handle on its play-action pass and run game.

In response to a question after the game, Steelers quarterback Justin Fields said he believes the offense has an identity, but he wasn't sure what that identity is.

“I think we have an identity. I just don’t know what that is, I’ve never necessarily heard an option for an identity,” Fields said. “I think we ran the ball well today. Like I said, I think we just missed shots and shot ourselves in the foot again. So I don't think we're one of those teams looking for an identity.

I think we know who we are. We’re a team where it’s all about playing football and staying on schedule in the first and second half and then performing in the third half, but we just couldn’t do it.”

The Steelers may want this to be their identity, but they still had just a 34 percent success rate on first downs in this game. Pittsburgh ranks near the bottom of the league in most performance metrics, and while they stayed in third place through the first four weeks, they couldn't do the same this week, finishing just third out of twelve.

Pittsburgh's identity must be defined by playful passes, which could be a hard sell for the team. They haven't put together any explosive playoff game action yet, and until they do, it will be difficult to see Pittsburgh's offense progress in its early down efficiency.

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