Labriola on the win over the Saints

Sitting in the stands inside Stade de France, you might have heard the locals say, "Il était grand temps." In one of the many establishments in the 412 that opened their doors early on a Sunday morning to welcome their regulars, it probably would've sounded more like, "It's abaht time yinz ran da ball."

The Steelers not only ran the football on Sunday, along the way to a 16-10 victory over New Orleans in the NFL's inaugural International Game staged in France, they ran it effectively.

After the Saints won the toss and elected to defer, the Steelers took the opening kickoff and got right to it. They were going to feature Jaylen Warren, and they were going to run the football. Warren touched the ball on the first four plays, and 5 of the first 7 plays were runs that accounted for 48 yards on a possession that ended with a 28-yard field goal and a 3-0 lead just 4:09 into the first quarter.

And this time it was just the beginning, not an aberration.

With 101 yards on 18 carries, Warren posted his third 100-yard game of the season, and adding in his 3 receptions, he finished with 21 touches for 137 yards from scrimmage. Rico Dowdell had spent some time on the injury report during the week with a foot issue, but he showed no ill effects of that and added 86 yards from scrimmage on 15 touches.

The Steelers finished with 63 offensive plays – 30 of them were running plays, including 2 in victory formation in the final 61 seconds to close out their 16-10 victory; the other 33 were passes, including the 3 times Aaron Rodgers was sacked. It was a win and almost the literal definition of offensive balance.

"We've been doing a good job offensively on most things," said Coach Mike McCarthy. "Third down was something that we needed to improve on. We've been doing a good job of staying in reasonable third-down opportunities -- third-and-2, third-and-4, 5, and 6. So with that, the ability to also run the ball in those situations, I felt was huge for us today. I thought our players and coaches did a really good job with the game planning, and with us sticking to the run there."

Their 20 first downs in the game were attained with another nearly equal split – 9 by rushing, 10 by passing, and 1 on a special teams penalty. In their first two offensive possessions of the game, the Steelers converted 4 third-down situations by running the football, and overall 5 of the 9 rushing first downs came on third-down conversions. This time it was a commitment to running the football right from the start of the game. Or as Aaron Smith once said in the cafeteria line at Saint Vincent College, "It's a mind-set, baby."

Smith was a defensive lineman on those 2000s teams that won a lot of games and hardware, and he always embodied the attitude guys need to have if their place of business is along an NFL line of scrimmage. The offensive linemen and defensive linemen took care of business vs. New Orleans.

The offensive line particularly has been on the come. McCarthy moved Brock Hoffman into the RG spot and put Max Iheanachor at RT leading up to the Sept. 27 game vs. Cincinnati, and that group-of-5 made their 5th start together on Sunday. And while it's fair to contend the group of Troy Fautanu, Mason McCormick, Zach Frazier, Hoffman, and Iheanachor need more seasoning and could tighten up the pass blocking some, the unit has been getting it done in the running game. Add TE Darnell Washington to the list of road-graders, and for the first time yesterday Spencer Anderson was frequently utilized as a 6th O-lineman.

Since becoming a 5-man unit, the group has gone 5 straight games having played 100 percent of the offensive snaps. It facilitated 138 rushing yards vs. Cincinnati; a 4.8 average per attempt vs. a quality Browns front-7; 127 rushing yards vs. Indianapolis; a 4.0 average per attempt vs. a better Tampa Bay front-7; and then yesterday they controlled the line of scrimmage sufficiently for the Steelers to finish with 148 yards rushing, a 4.9 average, and a 32:03-27:57 edge in time of possession.

"We felt as a football team that we needed to own the line of scrimmage on both sides," said McCarthy. "We felt that going through the game-plan process that that was going to be an important factor in the game. We definitely hit the target there.

"Specifically about the offensive line, they're young. They're getting consecutive starts. So this is another game we can build off. Finally, we were able to get our rushes up to 30. That was a goal to get the rushing attempts up. So very excited to see us take that step."

Flip it over and the run defense has been making contributions to what today is a 3-game winning streak that includes back-to-back victories on the road and a 5-2 overall record that has the team in a mathematical tie with Cleveland – this coming Sunday's opponent at Acrisure Stadium – atop the AFC North.

Bijan Robinson had 83 yards rushing in the opener; Jonathan Taylor was limited to 45 yards on Oct. 11; Bucky Irving had 46 and a 2.4 average on Oct. 18; and in Paris, Alvin Kamara and Kendre Miller combined for 11 yards on 14 attempts. Noteworthy is that in between Bijan Robinson and Jonathan Taylor, DLs Derrick Harmon and Sebastian Joseph-Day have gone to IR, with their snaps being absorbed by rookies Gabriel Rubio and Kevin Jobity, Jr. Second-year pro Yahya Black has had his responsibilities increased as well.

"Momentum is a critical factor in being successful in (football) and probably any sport," said McCarthy. "Momentum creates confidence. And the confidence is how you win. Yes, we've got three (in a row). It's important for us to get the next division game. We talked about it last night in the team meeting. I don't really like to look ahead when you talk about planning, but this is a four-game series that we addressed after losing (to the Browns) early. It was important for us to go 4-0 (between that and the bye). And so we have that opportunity, and this is a big win. It will be very enjoyable flight home."

Once the plane lands, they'll have just a few days to work on improving things such as pass protection, red zone efficiency (1-of-4 in Paris), and possession down defense, both in terms of the rush and the coverage (second-year QB Tyler Shough completed 79 percent on the way to the Saints converting 57.1 percent on possession downs).

All of that, plus the most important thing of all.

"Marquer plus de points."

Because starting this Sunday when the Browns visit, 10 just isn't going to be enough.