The Pittsburgh Steelers are in the second half of their regular season schedule, and they are sporting a stellar record with six games remaining. Even with them coming off a disappointing loss to the Cleveland Browns on Thursday Night Football in Week 12, there is plenty of hope for the upcoming slate of games.

If you were to pin-point one area where the team could, and probably should, improve on offense, it would be the team’s slow starts to games. After the 24-19 loss to the Browns Mike Tomlin sang a familiar song in his post-game press conference.

“Particularly early on I thought it took us too long to warm up to the action. We were penalized, some pre-snap penalties. Just weren’t really sharp. We got going. Our guys fought, but it wasn’t enough to secure victory.

“It’s painful, but it’s life in this business. We’ll take a look at the tape and learn from it. We’re in the midst of some thick AFC North action, so no rest for the weary.”

No rest indeed, but let’s take a look at the first three possessions of the Steelers during their previously held winning streak, and the loss to the Browns on Thursday night (a shout out to Steel City Insider’s Jim Wexell for compiling this information and putting it on social media).

First 3 possessions:

• vs. Clev: 26 plays, 139 yds, 15 pen yds, 3-7 score
• vs. Balt: 15 plays, 41 yds, 0 pen yds, 3-0
• vs. Wash: 14 plays, 74 yds, 29 pen yds, 7-7
• vs. NYG: 29 plays, 181 yds, 15 pen yds, 9-6
• vs. NYJ: 13 plays, 49 yds, 0 pen yds, 3-7
• vs. LV: 22 plays, 78 yds, 15 pen yds, 6-7 score

Notice anything about these numbers? I sure do…

Look at the penalty yards in all but two of the games. Talk about feast or famine.

Look at the number of plays, then look at the score after the first three possessions. All but two games had 15 plays or more in those first three possessions, and never more than 9 points for the black-and-gold.

At this point in time the focus of the Steelers should be two-fold:

• Start faster
• Score more touchdowns

The Steelers are dominating opponents in time of possession this season, but they don’t have much to show for it with many of those time-consuming drives ending in field goals, or turnovers in one way or another. In fact, the Steelers are the top team in the NFL as it pertains to time of possession. They are averaging 32:50 minutes of possession time a game, but what has it gotten them in terms of production? 22.9 points per game, a middle-of-the-pack ranking.

When you look back on the Steelers recent successes and failures, you can see flashes of brilliance, but those are often blotted out by shades of sheer incompetence.

Look at the Steelers’ first drive of their most recent game as a prime example. The Steelers start with the football, drive into distant field goal range, take up almost 6 minutes of game time, have one penalty, and leave with zero points after Chris Boswell missed a 58-yard field goal in blustery conditions.

It shows yardage gained, possessing the football, but absolutely nothing to show for it. And even if the Boswell kick would have been good, there comes a point when the team will need to start scoring more touchdowns. That time of the regular season calendar is now as the team prepares to play the Cincinnati Bengals, who are averaging 27 points per game as they rest up on their bye week.

I’ve been encouraged by what we’ve seen from the Steelers offense since Russell Wilson took over, but I think we can all agree there is work left to be done. Where to start? Try with the starts to the game…