It’s been a while since the Pittsburgh Steelers’ season ended but I wanted to circle back to my weekly Steelers’ sack breakdowns for one final seasonal review. My apologies for writing individual reports on the final two games where Kenny Pickett was sacked three times but I’ve gone back through those plays and added them to our yearly totals.
Below will be our sack and penalty counter throughout the season with some final thoughts, numbers, and overall takeaways. Here are the final sack numbers for 2022.
SACK BREAKDOWN (SEASON)
Kenny Pickett: 9.0
Dan Moore Jr.: 5.5
Kevin Dotson: 4.5
Mitch Trubisky: 4.0
Chukwuma Okorafor: 4.0
Scheme/Defensive Coverage: 3.5
Matt Canada: 2.0
Mason Cole: 1.5
Pat Meyer: 1.5
Najee Harris: 1.0
James Daniels: 0.5
Benny Snell: 0.5
Jaylen Warren: 0.5
J.C. Hassenauer: 0
And the same with penalties.
PENALTY BREAKDOWN (SEASON)
Kevin Dotson: 10
Dan Moore Jr.: 9
James Daniels: 3
Chukwuma Okorafor: 3
J.C. Hassenauer: 1
Mason Cole: 0
– Off the top, you can see why we do these breakdowns. They dispel the notion that all sacks are on the offensive line. Kenny Pickett was easily responsible for the highest number of sacks by any one player with nine of them. Steelers’ quarterbacks were responsible for 13 of the 38 sacks (34.2%) while non-offensive linemen were responsible for 22 of them, or 57.9%.
– On the penalty side of things, LG Kevin Dotson and LT Dan Moore Jr. were the biggest offenders. 19 combined between the two. Comparatively, the rest of the offensive line had only seven penalties. It’s worth noting Mason Cole had one penalty against him against Atlanta but it was declined and I only count accepted penalties in my tracker (I may change that for next year).
– Focusing on the offensive line when it comes to sacks, the numbers are pretty good. Dan Moore’s numbers dropped from 7.5 his rookie year to 5.5 his sophomore season. Last year, center Kendrick Green allowed 3.5 sacks, a bad number for a center (they often allow fewer sacks than offensive tackles) compared to Cole this year, who allowed just 1.5. James Daniels was a rock star, allowing just a half-sack the entire season. Remarkable.
– But putting numbers in context is key relative to snap count. Pittsburgh’s line was remarkably healthy this year so this becomes a bit less valuable but we’ll still chart these on a per-snap basis. Here’s the number of pass pro reps per snap allowed. Higher the number, the better. This is out of 640 pass pro snaps.
Dan Moore Jr.: 116.3 (640 pass pro snaps)
Kevin Dotson: 142.2 (640 pass pro snaps)
Chukwuma Okorafor: 160 (640 pass pro snaps)
Mason Cole: 404 (606 pass pro snaps)
James Daniels: 1280 (640 pass pro snaps)
A year ago, Moore’s number sat at 93.3 so we’re seeing a slight uptick here. Dotson’s numbers got worse, Okorafor’s got better, and Daniels’ is higher than the total number of pass pro snaps because he allowed only a half-sack all year. So on a full-sack page, 640/0.5 is 1280.
– On the penalty side of things, Okorafor’s flags were reduced from eight in 2021 to three in 2022. Combine that with four sacks over 17 games and those baseline metrics look good, even if they obviously don’t tell the whole story. Dotson’s penalties doubled while Moore’s skyrocketed, two his rookie year to nine this year. James Daniels’ half-sack and three penalties are excellent numbers.
– Since 2015, the only Steeler to be penalized more than Kevin Dotson’s ten were David DeCastro’s 11 in 2016. Only two to be in double-digits. Moore’s are the third-most of any Steeler over that timeframe.
– As a unit, the Steelers’ line had 31 accepted flags against them in 2021. In 2022, that number sat at 26 so slight improvement there that got much better over the second half of the season.
