The Pittsburgh Steelers only possessed the football for about 25 minutes in Sunday’s game against the Baltimore Ravens, so they only managed about 60 or so snaps in the game. That made my job a bit easier this week with fewer plays to account for, but needless to say I would trade a few dozen extra snaps for a win any week.
- Personnel groupings:
- 01: 13/63 (20.6%)
- 11: 44/63 (69.8%)
- 12: 2/63 (3.2%)
- 13: 2/63 (3.2%)
- V-32: 1/63 (1.6%)
- As you can see, there was a massive favoring of wide receiver-heavy packages during Sunday’s game. That shouldn’t be surprising given that they quickly got off to a 14-0 deficit in the first quarter and then trailed for most of the second half as well.
- This is the first time since I have been charting the games that they used three or more receivers on more than 90 percent of their snaps, however, for a single game. They came very close very recently, but the usage was simply huge in this game.
- Also of note is that the 01 personnel package, which makes use of Ryan Switzer, appears to be here to stay—at least until Le’Veon Bell gets back. The 13 snaps is the most by a decent amount that it has ever been used by the Steelers over the past few years in a game.
- On that same note, for the second time this season, they used 01 extensively during a specific drive. This time it accounted for every snap of a six-play drive.
- The only snap that fullback Roosevelt Nix played in the entire game on offense was as the right fullback in the victory formation, which obviously game at the end of the first half, and not at the end of the game, considering the fact that they lost. I think this is the first time they haven’t used a fullback on even a single snap since Nix has been on the roster, at least for games in which he has been healthy.
- The offense appears to be shifting more and more toward Vance McDonald rather than Jesse James, though that could be situational bias. The Steelers are more likely to use McDonald in three-receiver sets when they are trailing.
- The Steelers only use play action four times. Those four plays produced four completions of 10, 11, 15, and 38 yards.
- The Ravens blitzed a decent amount, but it was often with just four or five rushers. They did get one sack and an interception out of it.
- Ben Roethlisberger had three passes batted in this game, including one that was caught.
- Average depth of target: 7.17 (47 targets)
- Vance McDonald: 3 (5 targets)
- Antonio Brown: 9.2 (11 targets)
- Jesse James: 18 (1 target)
- James Conner: 1.1 (8 targets)
- JuJu Smith-Schuster: 11.9 (11 targets)
- James Washington: 9.8 (4 targets)
- Ryan Switzer: 2.4 (7 targets)
