With Week 17 in the books, it’s time to look back at the sacks the Pittsburgh Steelers allowed in the 2017 season. In total, 24 of them, three more allowed than 2016. We’ve already posted the numbers but we’ll take a slightly deeper look into them here.
First, reposting the sack breakdown from last year.
Sack Breakdown (2017)
Alejandro Villanueva: 6
Ben Roethlisberger: 3.5
Todd Haley: 3
Chris Hubbard: 2
Le’Veon Bell: 1.5
David DeCastro: 1.5
Ramon Foster: 1.5
Matt Feiler: 1
B.J. Finney: 1
Maurkice Pouncey: 1
Marcus Gilbert: .5
Receivers: .5
Coverage: .5
And let’s look at it from a more relative perspecitve, snaps per sack allowed. Higher the number, the better.
Pouncey: 591
Gilbert: 436
DeCastro: 394.7
Foster: 352.7
Hubbard: 217.5
Roethlisberger: 168.6
Finney: 111
Villanueva: 101.2
Feiler: 34
Now let’s compare each one to last year’s results. The 2016 numbers will be in parentheses on the right.
Alejandro Villanueva: 6 (4.5)
Ben Roethlisberger: 3.5 (3.5)
Todd Haley: 3 (0)
Chris Hubbard: 2 (0)
Le’Veon Bell: 1.5 (.5)
David DeCastro: 1.5 (2)
Matt Feiler: 1 (N/A)
B.J. Finney: 1 (1)
Ramon Foster: 1.5 (2)
Maurkice Pouncey: 1 (0)
Marcus Gilbert: .5 (4)
Receivers: .5 (0)
Coverage: .5 (0)
Current Steelers responsible for sacks last year but none this year include: Jesse James, Fitzgerald Toussaint, Antonio Brown, and Landry Jones.
For the offensive line and quarterbacks, let’s look at the three year track of sack totals. They’ll go from left to right, 2017 to 2015.
Villanueva: 6-4.5-5.5
Foster: 1.5-2-2.5
Pouncey: 1-0-0
DeCastro: 1.5-2-2.5
Gilbert: .5-4-1.5
Roethlisberger: 3.5-3.5-1.5
So we’re seeing pretty consistent numbers across the board. Some of the lower numbers (Foster, Gilbert) can partially be attributed to lack of playtime, injury or suspension. Frankly, not much interesting to discuss. DeCastro is coming off a solid season playing 15 games. Pouncey gave up his first sack in forever. Gilbert still did well despite missing about half the year.
Let’s look at penalties. Here are the 2017 stats.
Penalty Counter (Season)
David DeCastro: 6
Alejandro Villanueva: 5
Chris Hubbard: 3
Maurkice Pouncey: 3
Marcus Gilbert: 1
B.J. Finney: 1
And let’s compare that to 2016.
David DeCastro: 6 (11)
Alejandro Villanueva: 5 (6)
Chris Hubbard: 3 (2)
Maurkice Pouncey: 3 (2)
Marcus Gilbert: 1 (5)
B.J. Finney: 1 (2)
Ramon Foster: 0 (1)
And like sacks, three year totals, 2017 to 2015.
Villanueva: 5-6-1
Foster: 0-1-3
Pouncey: 3-2
DeCastro: 6-11-2
Gilbert: 1-5-6
Hubbard: 3-2-0
Villanueva had such a good year penalty-wise in 2015 but those numbers have normalized out over the next two. Pouncey plays really clean, five penalties in three years, while Foster’s numbers are even more ridiculous. One penalty in the last 28 games.
DeCastro’s numbers have fortunately dropped from last years penalty-fest but you’d still like to see them a little lower next year.
