With the offense looking like a mess along with the defense getting gashed on the ground through the first five weeks of the season, the bright spots can be hard to identify for a Pittsburgh Steelers team that enters the bye week 3-2 and atop of the AFC North. Obviously, OLB T.J. Watt is off to a hot start, likely being the favorite for the DPOY Award with eight sacks in five games. WR George Pickens has also been impressive to start the season and rookies CB Joey Porter Jr. and DL Keeanu Benton are showing promise for this season and the years to come.
However, there is one stat that sticks out regarding Pittsburgh success in the win/loss column this season: penalties. According to nflpenalities.com, the Steelers are averaging the fewest penalties per game with 4.4 penalties accepted per contest. Pittsburgh just edges out the Jacksonville Jaguars for the top spot with the latter averaging 4.6 accepted penalties per contest. The NFL dubious leader in accepted penalties is the Carolina Panthers with a whopping 8.2 penalties per game.
The Steelers have been called for 28 penalties in 2023 with six of those being declined. The highest penalty against Pittsburgh this season has been false starts with four accepted. Offensive holding technically leads the way with five called, but three have been declined. RT Chukwuma Okorafor has been called for five penalties but only have had two accepted. S Minkah Fitzpatrick leads the way on the team with three accepted penalties on the season, all resulting in first downs. He has been called for defensive holding, defensive pass interference, and roughing the passer.
It’s often stated that the team that doesn’t turn the football over wins football games. Along with not turning the football over, avoiding penalties is another key variable teams must acknowledge in their pursuit of victory. The Steelers did a great job avoiding the turnover bug last season after their bye week, not coincidentally going 7-2 down the stretch.
Pittsburgh currently has currently the third-worst offense and defense in the league in terms of total yards, according to Pro Football Reference, along with a -31-point differential, but still has a winning record and is in first place in the division. That could be attributed to a couple of huge plays in crucial moments, luck, but also a lack of self-destructive penalties where other teams shoot themselves in the foot when they can’t afford to do so. We need to see this offense cleaned up as well as the defense being better against the run, but as we saw last Sunday, the Steelers have a knack for winning games ugly.
Giving the opposing team free yards or creating longer fields for yourself won’t help matters, and to the Steelers’ credit, they’ve played the game the cleanest of any team on a penalty basis to start the season.
