For the last time of 2019, a look at our defensive charting we track every week. Some numbers and some commentary for you below.
– Excluding kneeldowns and “no plays,” the Pittsburgh Steelers’ defense logged 1067 snaps in 2019. Here are the year-by-year totals.
2019: 1067
2018: 1021
2017: 979
2016: 1040
2015: 1102
– The good news is the Steelers’ pace came down throughout the year, at one point, they were on pace for 1156 snaps, but this is still the second most snaps played since 2015.
– Here’s one of the key ones. Breakdown of personnel groupings:
Nickel: 47.2%
3-4: 28%
Dime: 15.9%
1-5-5: 3.7%
3-5: 1.7%
1-4-6: 1.6%
4-3: 1.6%
Goal Line: 0.2%
Here is the breakdown of base vs sub-package defense from 2019. In base, I am including 3-4, 4-3, and their 3-5. Everything else but goal line (which is its own separate category) gets thrown into the sub-package grouping.
Sub: 68.5%
Base: 31.3%
Here are the year-by-year breakdowns of base vs sub.
2018:
Sub: 68.4%
Base: 31%
2017:
Sub: 61.1%
Base: 38.8%
2016:
Sub: 70.5%
Base: 28.7%
2015:
Sub: 71.3%
Base: 27.4%
Over the last five years, the Steelers average amount of sub vs base is:
Sub: 68%
Base: 31.4%
So there ya go. 68/31 split with a little goal line sprinkled in to make up that extra one-percent.
– Last thing with the personnel groupings. Dime defense usage went way down this year. Yearly snap count, 2017-2019.
2019: 170
2018: 379
2017: 222
– Having steadier ILB play helped reduce that dime rate. Basically was used in very “traditional” situations like end-of-half/game and obvious pass situations. Much less so on 1st down. Here’s a look at first down dime rates from 2018 to 2019 to illustrate the difference.
2019: 32
2018: 106
– Let’s look at Keith Butler’s blitz rates from this season.
Blitz: 33.5%
5+: 34.3%
Here are his yearly blitz rates, including 2014, Dick LeBeau’s final year as DC.
2014: 28%
2015: 33.3%
2016: 39.7%
2017: 33.2%
2018: 44.1%
2019: 33.5%
Ditto with his 5+ rates.
2015: 33.6%
2016: 27.7%
2017: 19.5%
2018: 36%
2019: 34.3%
So blitz rates came down, 5+ remained roughly the same, but they weren’t drastically different than most seasons, even if it felt like it given the damage TJ Watt and Bud Dupree did.
– Ok, let’s check things out by position group.
Defensive Line
Pressures
Cam Heyward: 35
Stephon Tuitt: 13
Javon Hargrave: 11
Tyson Alualu: 4
Daniel McCullers: 3
Isaiah Buggs: 0
Snaps per pressure. Lower the number, the better. In parentheses next to each player is their 2018 pressure rate number.
Tuitt: 12.5 (21.7)
Heyward: 14.1 (18.4)
Hargrave: 33.4 (18.8)
Alualu: 53.5 (53)
McCullers: 20.7 (15.7)
Heyward put up an insanely good number and set a high in pressures as long as we’ve been tracking them. Hargrave’s number fell off but he always does well converting pressures to sacks. 23 pressures, 10.5 sacks the past two seasons. And McCullers always puts up weirdly good numbers because he doesn’t get a lot of chances and is good for a pocket-collapsing bull rush a few times a year.
Linebackers
Pressures
TJ Watt: 45
Bud Dupree: 34
Vince Williams: 13
Mark Barron: 6
Devin Bush: 3
Ola Adeniyi: 3
Anthony Chickillo: 1
Snaps per pressure:
Watt: 11.1 (12)
Adeniyi: 12
Dupree: 15.6 (13.8)
Chickillo: 61 (19.9)
Coverage rate. Doing this just for Watt and Dupree.
Dupree: 7.8%
Watt: 9.1%
That’s been one of the biggest differences in Watt and Dupree’s dominance. They’re really getting to go forward more often than any other season. Here are the year-by-year coverage rates for each player.
Watt:
2019: 9.1%
2018: 19.3%
2017: 37.3%
Dupree:
2019: 7.8%
2018: 18.3%
2017: 24.7%
2016: 27.3%
2015: 12.3%
Clear downward slope for those guys since 2016/2017. And they’re better off because of it. Good – if not a bit overdue – adjustment by the coaching staff.
Target stats from the ILBs:
Vince Williams:3/4 13 yards 0 TDs 0 INTs
Devin Bush:12/19 112 yards 3 TDs 1 INT
Mark Barron: 17/28 133 yards 2 TDs 1 INT
Secondary
– Target stats from the year.
Sean Davis: 1/1 13 yards 0 TDs 0 INTs
Artie Burns: 2/2 28 yards, 0 TDs 0 INTs
Kam Kelly: 4/4 49 yards, 1 TD 0 INTs
Minkah Fitzpatrick: 7/16 58 yards 2 TDs 4 INTs
Cam Sutton: 9/20 81 yards 0 TDs 1 INT
Mike Hilton: 13/29 189 yards 2 TDs 1 INT
Terrell Edmunds: 21/30 330 yards 3 TDs 0 INTs
Steven Nelson: 23/44 323 yards 0 TDs 1 INT
Joe Haden: 27/57 333 yards 4 TDs 6 INTs
– QB rating when each player was targeted:
Sutton: 35.7
Haden: 49.7
Fitzpatrick: 53.7
Nelson: 66.8
Hilton: 75.2
Williams: 78.1
Barron: 81.4
Bush: 96.9
Davis: 118.8
Burns: 118.8
Edmunds: 139.6
Kelly: 157.3
– Davis and Burns have very, very small sample sizes and should be taken with a grain of salt.
– Want to know why Fitzpatrick was quiet over the final portion of the season? Over his final eight weeks, he was targeted just twice. Teams wised up and simply stopped throwing the ball anywhere near him.
