The Pittsburgh Steelers wrapped up their regular season on Sunday in a meaningless game against the Cleveland Browns, in doing so playing a punch of backups, but it also resulted in some interesting charting anomalies. It featured, for example, the only play of the season without a quarterback on the field. And no, I’m not making a joke about Landry Jones, he really wasn’t on the field.
- Personnel formations:
- 11: 55/73 (75.3%)
- 12: 6/73 (8.2%)
- 13: 1/73 (1.4%)
- 21: 4/73 (5.5%)
- 22: 5/73 (6.8%)
- 23: 1/73 (1.4%)
- 12WC: 1/73 (1.4%)
- You may have noticed the unusual listing at the end of the above list. On one play, the Steelers used Demarcus Ayers in the shotgun taking a direct snap with no quarterback on the field. There were three wide receivers, including himself, in addition to two tight ends and a running back, so I listed it as 12WC to indicate the personnel with a Wildcat quarterback.
- Speaking of Ayers, a few weeks ago, he was on the practice squad. On Sunday, he barely came off the field, logging 68 of 73 snaps. On all but one of those snaps, there was only one receiver—or no receivers—on the field.
- As you also no doubt noticed, the Steelers’ dominant package in the finale was by far the 11 personnel, using it more than three quarters of the time, which, if I’m not mistaken, is the highest single-game ratio of the season. 13 of those plays came in overtime, and another 30 or so took place in the second half. 10 of their first 18 snaps came out of the 11.
- Given what I previously said, it would not be surprising to learn that Roosevelt Nix played only 10 snaps, and Chris Hubbard saw six snaps. These numbers are in contrast to their typical workload during the majority of the second half of the season.
- For only the second times this season, the Steelers gave up four sacks. All four of them came on third and long (at least six yards to go), and all four of them featured a blitz with an extra player. Three of them featured six rushers.
- Speaking of blitzing, the Browns certainly teed off on the Steelers and Jones—and backups B.J. Finney and Fitzgerald Toussaint. They blitzed on 22 of 43 passing opportunities, including 20 blitzes with an extra rusher. Eight of those blitzes featured six rushers. They had a plan.
- On those 22 blitzes, the Steelers gained a net average of 1.8 yards per play, including four sacks and an interception. But Jones also converted on fourth down in overtime and then hit the 26-yard game-winner on the next play against a six-man rush.
- Average depth of target – 11.7
- Demarcus Ayers – 12.4 (14 targets)
- Eli Rogers – 8.7 (6 targets)
- Fitzgerald Toussaint – -4 (2 targets)
- DeAngelo Williams – -1.8 (4 targets)
- Roosevelt Nix – -1 (2 targets)
- Jesse James – 8.3 (3 targets)
- Cobi Hamilton – 23 (4 targets)
- Darrius Heyward-Bey – 33 (4 targets)
