Among the many problems the Pittsburgh Steelers have exhibited so far, one of the biggest has been the offense’s inability to stay on schedule. Lack of success on first down leads to second and longs, which leads to third and longs, at which they haven’t been very good. In fact, they rank 22nd in the league in third-down conversion rate this season.
To get into even more detail, the Steelers average 8.4 yards to go on second-down plays so far this season. That ranks as the third worst in the NFL behind only the New York Giants and the New York Jets, neither of whom have the quarterback they want on the field. The Steelers supposedly do. This would be a good area to start improving upon to promote change.
“Just converting the downs. That is the game of football”, WR George Pickens said recently, quoted for the team’s website by Teresa Varley. “You can start as fast as you want if you convert every first down. I will say converting first downs for sure. Stay in the first-down area, not get to third and long and get us in a bad area”.
Converting first downs doesn’t just mean success on possession downs, but to focus on that for just a moment, Pittsburgh actually isn’t as bad in that area. Or at least getting to third down. While the Steelers are among the worst in yards to go on second down, they are in the top half of the league, nearly the top 10, on third down. That means they have had success on second down, but they set themselves behind the sticks so often on first down that it’s a struggle.
Pittsburgh’s first-down numbers have to deal with the 71-yard touchdown to Pickens as an outlier, but the reality is that well over a third of its plays run on first down have failed to gain yards, many of them losing yards.
As far as general conversions goes? I hope you’re sitting down for this, but the Steelers have the fewest first downs in the league. To be clear, what I mean by that is that no team has picked up fewer first downs over the course of the first four weeks of the season.
They have just 51, to date, averaging about 12 per game. Only 18.7 percent of their plays result in a first down (or touchdown), which is also the lowest mark in the league. They are the only team below 20 percent. And they have the most punts in the NFL. Yet the players believe the ingredients are there.
“I feel like we have enough balance. It’s converting”, Pickens said. “Sometimes we have three-and-outs. I would say converting”, he cited as the offense’s biggest impediment to success right now.
The Steelers were one of the best teams in the league converting on third down last season, especially during the second half of the year, which allowed them to finish seventh in that statistic for the entire season. But if they can’t keep themselves on schedule this year, they’re going to continue to leave their defense on the field. So they’ve got to find a way to keep those chains moving.
