James Conner looked like he had the potential to make Pittsburgh Steelers fans forget all about Le’Veon Bell with his performance in Week 1, but the second-year running back has not been nearly as effective since. According to offensive coordinator Randy Fitchner, game-planning has a lot to do with that.
While speaking with reporters on Wednesday, Fitchner admitted that he needs to call Conner’s number more early in games.
“I probably just need to do a better job heating him up,” Fichtner said, via Chris Adamski of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “It’s just like quarterbacks, too. You get into a rhythm. And all good running backs, they need that rhythm.”
After he rushed for 135 yards on 31 attempts and caught five passes for 57 yards in a Week 1 tie against the Cleveland Browns, Conner has had just 32 rush attempts in the past three games combined. Pittsburgh lost two of those, including last week’s game in which they fell behind early against the Baltimore Ravens.
Conner certainly is nowhere near as talented a player as Bell, but the Steelers could help open things up for Antonio Brown and JuJu Smith-Schuster if they give opponents more reason to respect the run. Reports have indicated that Bell is getting closer to showing up to work, so Pittsburgh probably won’t need to lean on Conner for much longer.
