Stats are fun. We think so, and we’re pretty sure you think so too, which is why this season we’ve decided to make our charting notes a weekly series to follow every game. We will also likely follow up with quarterly, mid-season, and post-season charting notes as well that take in a larger sample than just one game, but for today, we take a look at the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offensive charting notes against the Eagles.
- To start off, we have the personnel packages:
- 11 (3WR, 1RB, 1TE): 72% (44/61)
- 01 (4WR, 0RB, 1TE): 11.5% (7/61)
- 12 (2WR, 1RB, 2TE): 15% (9/61)
- 13 (1WR, 1RB, 3TE): 1.5% (1/61)
- A couple of notes on these figures. The Steelers ran with at least three wide receivers nearly 85 percent of the time throughout the game. Only 10 out of 61 plays featured multiple tight ends or running backs, and seven of them came on the opening drive.
- Jesse James got a total of two plays off during this game, and he was replaced by Xavier Grimble on those two snaps.
- Prior to Eli Rogers’ injury, Markus Wheaton and Sammie Coates did not log a single snap together. Wheaton logged 22 consecutive snaps following his injury, however, 17 of which also featured Coates.
- After Wheaton’s second drop, he was benched for 15 consecutive plays, and 19 out of 20, until Rogers’ injury.
- Darrius Heyward-Bey saw a season-high 28 snaps, and they came at all portions of the game, including four of the nine plays run out of two-receiver sets (again, Antonio Brown never came off the field).
- The Steelers turned to a four-receiver look after Rogers’ injury, running it on the first five plays of their next drive. The team completed one of five pass attempts out of this set for 19 yards, in addition to a defensive pass interference penalty drawn.
- Average pass distance: 9.20
- Pass distance by target:
- Antonio Brown:63 (19 targets)
- Sammie Coates:25 (4 targets)
- Eli Rogers: 8 (5 targets)
- Markus Wheaton: 15 (5 targets)
- Darrius Heyward-Bey: 50 (1 target)
- DeAngelo Williams:29 (7 targets)
- Jesse James: 3 (5 targets)
- The Steelers only used play action one time during the game. It did not work. They also ran no-huddle just seven times.
- Versus six blitzes of five or six defenders, Ben Roethlisberger competed five of six passes for 51 yards. The only incompletion came on the only third-down blitz.
- The Steelers averaged 5.33 yards after the catch on 24 receptions. Unlike last week, it was Brown doing the YAC work. Four of their five double-digit YAC plays were his, and he had 77 Yards after the catch in all, but that comes with 15 yards thrown behind the line of scrimmage.
- In preparation for Le’Veon Bell’s return, it is worth noting that Williams lined up as a wide receiver on eight plays on Sunday, on 44 designed pass plays.
- 17 of Wheaton’s 28 snaps came out of the slot. Heyward-Bey also had 13 snaps out of the slot, and they were the two inside receivers when the team used four.
