To an extent, I get where Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith is coming from when he defends some of the issues surrounding his offense’s rushing attack.

Sometimes, you grow attached to your car or truck to an illogical degree. I had an old Jeep I really liked, and I just kept putting off getting a new ride.

Just one more year. Just one more repair.

Eventually, though, you’ve got to admit that it’s not running the way it is supposed to run, and it needs a massive overhaul, or you’ve got to junk it.

It sure sounds like Smith is at that point when it comes to the Steelers’ ground game.

“We’re like an old pickup truck,” Smith said. “We’ll run well. We’re pretty (darn) good. The longer you get the thing in drive, sometimes it just takes a little while to crank the engine. We’ve got to get some jumper cables. Sometimes we just plod along, and then we get going, and we have some really good drives and play some explosive football.”

Well, lately, that truck has been sputtering when it tries to get up to highway speed. In the six games since the bye, the Steelers’ run game has been struggling. Smith’s rushing attack is averaging just 3.5 yards per carry over that span.

“I wouldn’t call it struggles,” Smith said. “If I look at it objectively, it’s all really people’s perception. We’re towards the top of the league in rushing. Sometimes it’s not as efficient as you want, but I think the biggest thing, if you watched us closely, it’s really all the way around. We’ve won 10 games. I look at it more as that.”

I’m not sure how much more objective we can be besides looking at the numbers, and the Steelers miles-per-gallon on the ground hasn’t been so great recently.

Yes. In terms of yards-per-game, the Steelers are 10th in the NFL in rushing at 126 per contest. They are second in attempts at 455. The running backs have only lost two fumbles all year (three if you count Najee Harris’s mishandled pitch Sunday in Philadelphia).

However, ball control and volume isn’t what it’s all about — especially over the past five or six weeks. Since the home game against the Baltimore Ravens on Nov. 17, the Steelers are averaging just 105 yards rushing per game. That pace would put them 23rd in the league.

Over the past five games, the ground game is averaging 3.6 yards per attempt. That’s what the Las Vegas Raiders are averaging at the bottom of the NFL.

Last week against Philadelphia, the Steelers put up just 56 rushing yards. No one on the team had more than 14 yards on the ground in the game. Five of the team’s 12 rushing touchdowns and 289 of their total rushing yards come from Justin Fields. He hasn’t been the starting quarterback since Week 6.

So, um, where did you say those jumper cables were, Arthur?

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“You look at every play of football, the nuances are what makes it fascinating,” Smith said. “So if we can get some of those runs like we have on a couple gaps, somebody rolls out of that, or we got leverage, or we’re a little tight here — that hole could’ve driven an old pickup truck through, well it now becomes a 1-yard gain. That’s not efficient, and that’s not good enough.”

Yeah. Exactly. The Steelers are a middle-of-the-pack team when it comes to third-down conversion rate — 13th in the NFL at 39%.

The problem is they get to third down too often. Their 190 attempts are eighth in the league. Their run game needs to be better on first and second downs to avoid third downs or make them more manageable.

Smith’s Ferrari of a wide receiver, George Pickens, is in the shop right now. That hurts the passing game. So Smith needs to keep gassing up the old pickup.

Understood.

But the check engine light is blinking on the dashboard. Pretending there isn’t a problem isn’t going to do anyone any good.

One thing old pickups don’t have is “nuance.” Let’s avoid throwing a new coat of paint on this jalopy and acting like it’s fresh off the lot.

Get under the hood and fix it.

LISTEN: Tim Benz and Jeremy Conn of 105.7 The Fan in Baltimore preview Round 2 of Steelers-Ravens.

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