The Pittsburgh Steelers are not impressing anybody with their offensive prowess thus far this season, let me tell you. Nobody is trembling in their boots when they realize that offensive coordinator Matt Canada’s offense is on deck. They rank 29th in the league in points scored per game and would rank 31st if you took away their two defensive touchdowns.
But one thing that they have been doing very well, especially more recently, has been protecting the football, and that most acutely concerns QB Kenny Pickett. The second-year quarterback ranks ninth in the league in interception percentage but has not turned the ball over in the past four games.
“They’re very happy with Kenny and the way he hasn’t turned the ball over”, Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette told Andrew Fillipponi and Chris Mueller on 93.7 The Fan during the week. “They want to get more consistency out of him, they want him to get the ball to open receivers, which he hasn’t been doing, but in terms of the turnovers, they’re ecstatic about that”.
And is it any surprise? That’s been the baseline expectation for Picket this season. Head coach Mike Tomlin basically laid it out. He said that he wasn’t coming into this season with the expectation that he was going to be outdueling Joe Burrow and Lamar Jackson. What they want him to do is protect the ball and be as efficient as possible while supporting him with a run game and the defense.
Tomlin is no fool, contrary to popular belief. He understands where the team is right at this moment. That is their model for success. It’s vital that they maximize their possessions, which is something they were doing a terrible job of early on.
They have been improving in that regard in more recent weeks, particularly since the bye, with fewer turnovers—some blips from backup QB Mitch Trubisky notwithstanding—and more efficient drives. It’s beginning to more closely resemble the success of last season.
Put simply, run the ball well, maintain possession, and win on possession downs. They’ve been improving in these areas, and the entire team has benefitted. The defense gets longer breaks on the sideline, which, ideally, leads to less time off the field. Of course, they have to force punts and turnovers when they get on it.
According to Pro Football Focus, since Week Five, nobody has done a better job of protecting the football than Pickett, among players with 40 or more pass attempts. He has only one Turnover-Worthy Play in that timespan on 103 pass attempts, with a Turnover-Worthy Play rate of just 0.8 percent. The Buffalo Bill’s Josh Allen is the only qualifying quarterback also under one percent. The Chicago Bears’ Justin Fields has no Turnover-Worthy Plays in that span but has only attempted 39 passes.
As a reminder, Pickett (nearly) topped this list in the second half of last season as well. From Week Nine on, he had a Turnover-Worthy Play percentage of just 1.5 on four Turnover-Worthy Plays, the lowest among all qualifying quarterbacks with the requisite number of dropbacks. Only Mac Jones’ 1.4 percent was lower, though he has one more Turnover-Worthy Play.
