Why Don't They Just Go Back to the Single Wing?

Another story in the Post-Gazette this morning about how the Steelers have recommitted to the running game under new OC Todd Hailey and at the urging (meddling insistence?) of team Prez Art Rooney II.  All kinds of stats cited about how there have been more running plays called in the two practice games so far and blah blah blah.  

Here's what I think...

In Ben Roethlisberger, the Steelers employ one of the Top Five QB's in all of football.  That's my opinion, of course, and some will argue that he may not be a "Top 5" guy, but I don't think that anyone would place him outside of the Top Ten.  And he HAS led the team to three Super Bowls in his tenure over center.

In Wallace (when he shows up, and he will, eventually), Brown, Sanders, and Miller the team employs, maybe not an elite corps of receivers, but certainly a good to very good corps of receivers.

Their best running back, Rashard Mendenhall, is coming off major knee surgery, and who knows when, or even if, he'll be able to play.  The RB next in line, Isaac Redman, is also hurt (and I wasn't convinced that he would be able to do the job on a full time basis anyway).  The rest of the running backs are all pretty much untested and/or unknown.  Even at full strength, no one was going to confuse the current RB's with Jerome Bettis or Franco Harris.

When you put all that together, why the insistence on shifting the offensive emphasis on "running the football"?  The nearest that I have been able to tell, the answer to that question is some combination of "because that's Steelers football", "because that's what western PA football is all about", "because that's how the Steelers have always done it", "because that's what the fans want" (I thought the fans wanted Steelers wins), and "because that's what Art II wants".  I'm just a fan and not an expert, but I don't think that that is how the NFL game is being played these days.

I will admit to not paying the strictest attention to the two practice games so far, but in each game, I did see the Steelers come up with first and goal situations, whereupon the "new Steelers offense" ran three straight plays in both such possessions and produced negative yardage in both possessions, and settled for field goals.  I know, I know...they are exhibition games, you try things out in those games, who cares if you win or lose.  I get that, but I also know that there will be plenty of times this season, when the games DO count, that there will be first and goal situations when the Steelers will need to score touchdowns, and right now, I don't have a lot of faith that three straight hand offs to Isaac Redman up the middle will get the job done.  

We'll see where it goes from here, and I have a lot of faith in Mike Tomlin to coach this team as he sees best.  As for Art II, I have a lot of faith in his ability to squeeze every last buck from every available revenue stream, and very little faith in his calling plays from the owner's box.