Today I wanted to look at and provide a favorite stat here on Steelers Depot: Adjusted Net Yards per Pass Attempt (ANY/A), which is (Passing Yards – Sack Yards + (20 * Passing TD) – (45 * Interceptions)) / (Passes Attempted + Times Sacked). Taking the offensive (OANY/A) and defensive (DANY/A) results, we get a differential.
To review the importance of the stat, only one Super Bowl winner since 2000 has had a negative differential, and no team has had a DANY/A of six or above. Here are links to the full 2022 season results and Week One of 2023 if you’d like to compare trends with this article.
Here are the 2023 results through Week Seven:
Pittsburgh has a below average 5.2 OANY/A number, which ties for 20th in the NFL, while the defense is a bit closer to league average at 5.9 (T-18th). Things have definitely improved since my Week One initial lay of the land article, when the Steelers faced the 49ers, who hold the strongest differential in the league.
Seeing the four total teams comfortably above average in both also checks out, including the divisional opponent Baltimore Ravens. Their strong defense tops the NFL (3.5 DANY/A), which highlights the encouraging recent win Pittsburgh was able to pull off. Miami’s top rank on offense is also expected, at an impressive 8.7 OANY/A.
Back to the Steelers, let’s look at how things have progressed weekly on offense:
As we can see, things started shaky out of the gate, below the ideal 6.5 OANY/A number (blue line) against strong defenses, particularly against the 49ers (2.5 OANY/A). That was a 30-7 blowout, where QB Kenny Pickett had a season-high two interceptions and was sacked a whopping five times. Encouragingly, Pittsburgh came away with a 26-22 divisional victory in Week Two against Cleveland, with a 5.5 OANY/A. We can also see the lack of standout performances for NFL offenses in general to start the year, which is a bit expected.
In another win, Week Three against Las Vegas (23-18), Pickett had his best 9.2 OANY/A of the year, ranking 22nd out of 212 games played, against a defense that is above league average so far in 2023 (5.5 DANY/A, T-12th). This included his only multi-touchdown game in the NFL to date (two), no interceptions, most passing yards (235), and least sacks (one).
Then the offense plummeted to a season low 2.1 OANY/A in the 30-6 loss in Week Four to the Texans, with an abysmal season-low 132 passing yards and 0/1 touchdown-interception ratio. This emphasizes OANY/A as common theme in the two blowout losses Pittsburgh has suffered in 2023.
Another positive trend followed, with a much better 6.3 OANY/A against Baltimore in a 17-10 divisional victory. The most recent 24-17 win following the bye week against the Rams was the second best and encouraging 7.9 OANY/A of 2023 for the Steelers, including Pickett’s highest 9.2 YPA, making the most of his 25 pass attempts in an impressive performance.
Here’s a weekly view for the defense:
Broadly, we see the Steelers’ defense has been above the line more often than not. One of the exceptions was the Week One blowout against San Francisco, with a 7.6 DANY/A on 220 passing yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, and three sacks, all by EDGE T.J. Watt.
Two impressive performances followed, starting in the Browns win, on a 4.0 DANY/A, allowing 235 yards, one touchdown, a whopping six sacks, and featured the huge pick-six from EDGE Alex Highsmith. Another strong performance followed in Week Three against the Raiders, with a 4.1 DANY/A, allowing 324 yards and two touchdowns but recording a season-high three interceptions, two from CB Levi Wallace and one from CB Patrick Peterson (the highlight game of their poor seasons by far) along with four sacks, led by Watt (two).
The worst defensive performance by far was Week Four against the Texans. Pittsburgh’s defense allowed a whopping 12.0 DANY/A, which was the sixth worst of any NFL defense in 2023. They allowed 312 passing yards, three touchdowns (including one on a halfback pass), along with no interceptions or sacks of rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud.
The Steelers were back above the line against the divisional rival Ravens, with a season best 3.9 DANY/A that ranked 47th out of all defensive performances this season. This included 236 passing yards allowed, no touchdowns, the red zone interception from rookie cornerback Joey Porter Jr., and four sacks, with Watt leading the way once again with two.
Last week following the bye, the Steelers had a 6.3 DANY/A against the Rams in their 24-17 win, which was better than expected against their potent attack, and did a great job in limiting WR Cooper Kupp to two catches for 29 yards. They allowed 231 passing yards, one touchdown, two sacks from DL Larry Ogunjobi and EDGE Nick Herbig, and the highlight being the unreal interception from Watt.
ANY/A has been a common theme to the Steelers’ two losses of the year, below the line on both sides of the ball as they were handed blowout losses. The defense has been above the line in every win of the year as well, which reiterates the importance of that stat for Pittsburgh and its style of play. Being near or above the line the last two games on both sides of the ball is encouraging. Hopefully that continues moving forward starting on Sunday against the Jaguars.
Here’s a table view of the season data to close, ranking the teams by ANY/A differential:
We see that Pittsburgh currently is tied for 19th with the Bengals within the division at -0.7. Obviously, you want this to be in the positive, with the 5.2 OANY/A number needing to improve the most as expected. Pittsburgh ended last season with a -0.9 number that tied for 23rd, with a 5.0 OANY/A and 5.9 DANY/A. The latter ironically matches the Steelers’ current number, and the offense has only been a tick better than last season. Can’t wait to see how it all plays out, with some recent positive trends hopefully continuing.
Thanks for reading and let me know your thoughts in the comments.
