It’s been a while since I’ve actually had to do this for a Pittsburgh Steelers loss, so bear with me for a bit. Pittsburgh managed just 17 points in a game in which they gained over 500 yards, so while they moved the ball efficiently, scoring was a completely different discussion. How did this happen? Well, we know how it happened: turnovers. But let’s see what else we can learn from the numbers.
- Personnel groupings
- 00: 1/80 (1.3%)
- 01: 6/80 (7.5%)
- 11: 56/80 (70%)
- 12: 5/80 (6.3%)
- 13: 3/80 (3.8%)
- 22: 8/80 (10%)
- FG: 1/80 (1.3%)
- For the first time all season, and honestly for the first time in at least a few years, since before I started charting the Steelers games, they legitimately used a five-receiver set on Sunday, though just for one play, which came on third and nine (it gained one yard). You know who the active receivers were that day, so you know who was on the field.
- The Steelers’ fake field goal really screwed with my charting, making me add columns in my Excel spreadsheet for the likes of Kameron Canaday and Cameron Heyward for the sake of one snap. Thanks.
- The Steelers started off the game mixing and matching between James Washington and Ryan Switzer as the number three receiver, even on a play-to-play basis, but from the second quarter and on, it was almost all Switzer.
- Another rarity this year was the Steelers using Darrius Heyward-Bey as the lone receiver in their 22 personnel package, something that was common the past two years. We saw that on four consecutive snaps in the third quarter.
- The Steelers were using Xavier Grimble a good amount in the game up until his fumble. Goes to show that when you don’t see many snaps you have to maximize every opportunity you get.
- It’s become readily apparent that the team is beginning to view Jaylen Samuels as their number two back over Stevan Ridley. But will he actually get more meaningful playing time?
- It’s probably not a shock on a day that includes a 97-yard touchdown, but the Steelers had a lot of yards after the catch against the Broncos. 254 to be exact, at least by our count. That includes 68 from JuJu Smith-Schuster’s long score.
- Denver blitzed on nine of 65 dropbacks. Three of those blitzes came on third down, and they recorded a stop each time.
- For some reason, Ben Roethlisberger also used play action more, 10 times, part of an RPO plan. They gained 43 yards on the nine non-penalty snaps, and 23 came on the James Conner
- Average depth of target: 7.1
- Alejandro Villanueva: 2 (1 target)
- Vance McDonald: 6.8 (5 targets)
- Xavier Grimble: 5 (1 target)
- Antonio Brown: 7 (15 targets)
- Jesse James: 6.3 (4 targets)
- Jaylen Samuels: 6 (2 targets)
- James Conner: -4 (4 targets)
- JuJu Smith–Schuster: 8.8 (17 targets)
- James Washington: 17.3 (3 targets)
- Ryan Switzer: 7.1 (9 targets)
