While Mike Tomlin foolishly doesn’t sound to be concerned about the Pittsburgh Steelers’ slow starts to games this year, it’s a major issue for Pittsburgh. With the team on the playoff bubble, ESPN analyst and analytics guru Aaron Schatz says the slow starts are a ‘concerning weakness’ for this Steelers team, and the numbers back it up.
“The Steelers have spent the entire 2023 season falling behind in games. Sure, sometimes they come back for a close victory at the end. But in the past two weeks, the Steelers started slow against a couple of bad teams in Arizona and New England, and they couldn’t come back. They have been outscored by 36 points in the first quarter (28th) and 35 points in the second quarter (25th). Then they have outscored opponents by 31 points in the second half of games,” Schatz writes.
The biggest issue for Pittsburgh the last two weeks was coming out flat against both the Cardinals and Patriots. After coming out flat against Arizona, the fact it happened again against Pittsburgh is a major concern and cause for alarm with this team. While no one’s confusing QB Mitch Trubisky for Patrick Mahomes, the Steelers can’t struggle early, especially against bad teams.
Pittsburgh’s DVOA numbers in the first quarter are also incredibly ugly.
“You can see this split in DVOA as well, showing that it’s a problem on both offense and defense. Pittsburgh ranks 30th in offensive DVOA in the first quarter of games, which improves to 15th in the second quarter and a surprising fifth after halftime. On defense, the Steelers go from 18th in DVOA before halftime to third after halftime.”
The Steelers offense is bad, but the fact they’re fifth in DVOA after halftime shows that they have the capacity to be a solid offense. If they can somehow sustain a consistent performance over all four quarters, this is a group that can win some games down the stretch and make the playoffs. The problem is they’ve shown nothing this season that proves they can do that.
At some point, the continual slow starts become a coaching issue. Whether it’s the game script early in games or a general lack of motivation to go out and compete, it’s clear something is wrong. It’s good that the Steelers are a better team in the second half, but it usually happens when they’re trying to climb out of a hole. When the defense can’t hold in the first half, as was the case against New England, it becomes a hole that’s too big for this Steelers offense to get out of.
The Steelers can’t afford to start slow against the Indianapolis Colts in a must-win game on Saturday. If it happens, the team’s playoff hopes will go down the drain.
