As expected, the Pittsburgh Steelers continued to use a lot of motion in their Week 5 home game against the Philadelphia Eagles. However, after not having great overall success on such plays in their first three games, the Steelers offense did improve their motion at the snap play success rate in their home win over the Eagles on Sunday at Heinz Field.
In total, the Steelers used motion at the snap of the football on 19 total offensive plays against the Eagles. There were three more plays, but they were wiped out by penalties of which two were on the Eagles defense. Of those 19 offensive plays that featured motion at the snap of the football, 9 (47.4%) of them went in the books as successful plays. That’s a better success rate than what the unit accomplished in the team’s first three games (42.9%).
Of those 19 offensive plays that featured motion at the snap of the football, all were runs except for one. That one pass, however, was merely a flip forward in the backfield from quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to wide receiver Ray-Ray McCloud in the first quarter than went around left end for a gain of 8 yards.
The 19 plays resulted in 68 yards gained. The longest gain that used motion at the snap of the football was 25 yards by running back James Conner on a second quarter split-flow zone run up the middle.
9 of the 19 plays utilized 11 personnel (1RB,1TE,3WR) and 4 of them were successful. Of the 7 plays that utilized 12 personnel (1RB,2TE,2WR), 3 were successful. The other 3 plays that included motion at the snap of the football utilized 22 personnel (2RB,2TE,1WR) and 2 of those were successful. Both of those successful plays resulted in touchdown, runs by wide receiver Chase Claypool and Conner and they are below.
Overall, the Steelers success rate on plays that include motion at the snap pf the football is increasing so that’s a positive. Even so, you would still like to see that rate around 50% and a few more gains of 8 yards or longer as well. The Steelers have yet to use the motion at the snap of the football on many true pass plays, so look for that to maybe start increasing beginning on Sunday at Heinz Field against the Cleveland Browns. Perhaps will see two or three pass plays that include motion at the snap of the football.
