With week one now in the books, it’s time to begin my quarterback charting of the regular season. In case you’re new to the series, I will be charting, visualizing, and providing takeaways for the all-important quarterback position for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
A couple of notes before we jump in. Thanks to Thomas Mock for his great work that helped me learn much of what I’m using in the series visually. Spikes and clear throwaways are removed due to being the correct situational decision, along with batted passes at the line of scrimmage. One removed pass this week, a throwaway.
After being named the starter for the regular season, quarterback Russell Wilson was ruled out of the opener with a recurrence of his calf injury from the offseason. That, of course, made things interesting out of the gates, and that misfortune was quarterback Justin Fields’ opportunity to start.
Not a perfect showing, with the main downfall being unable to get in the end zone, including fizzling out in the red zone. Fields also was shaky early, including two botched snap exchanges and accuracy issues. Otherwise, there was a lot to like, like facilitating a no-turnover game. Leaning on the defense and run game has been Pittsburgh’s recent recipe for winning, along with K Chris Boswell cashing in six FGs in this 18-10 win.
Fields went 17/23 (73.9 percent) for 156 yards, no TDs or INTs, two sacks, and a 91.9 QB rating, along with 14 runs for 57 yards. Now, I’ll dive into more specifics of the passing game.
Let’s start with a simple view of the 22 charted passes, with the number of throws at each pass distance for Week 1:
#1. 0-5 air yards: 45.5 percent. Nearly half the throws here point to the conservative nature of the passing game overall. The first pass of the game was a miss from Fields, low and behind on an out route to WR Van Jefferson, open but incomplete near the sideline. Also, on the first drive, it was a play-action crosser to TE Pat Freiermuth, this time connecting with the wide-open man for four yards.
Later in the first quarter, Fields showed decisiveness on 3rd-and-3 hitting WR George Pickens in the flat, getting just enough for the conversion. In the second quarter, this one was high and behind but Pickens does say “put it in the sky”, making the wow catch on a slot out route, more impressive than the two yards it gained.
Next was a 3rd-and-19 that stalled the third drive, expectedly facing off coverage and hitting RB Jaylen Warren in the flat at two air yards, with some YAC but a futile nine-yard gain. 2nd-and-3 with 14 seconds before halftime, it was Freiermuth in the flat at one air yard, adding YAC on the five-yard chain mover.
It’s a play-action shallow crosser in the third quarter, but TE MyCole Pruitt gets tripped up near the line, perhaps affecting the timing on the incompletion thrown ahead of him. Another 3rd-and-long, Fields hits Freiermuth on the out route at four air yards with a good YAC effort, but eight yards was shy of the 12 needed.
Two more plays, each in the fourth quarter. First was a play-action boot to the left (which there was a lot of), going to Freiermuth again on a shallow cross. This time, YAC effort of ten yards picked up the more manageable 2nd-and-9. The following pass was to the rarely targeted TE Darnell Washington, running across the formation to the flat off another play-action boot left for five yards.
T-2nd. Behind-the-Line: 22.7-percent. Five throws here. Fields’ second early game miss was behind RB Najee Harris in the flat with room to roam, clearly upset upon the incompletion. Next example was perhaps being too cute in scheme, a RB play-action with fake reverse action, then swing target for Pickens, but a missed block (G James Daniels) and a swarm of defenders stomped it for a loss of seven.
Next was a second quarter play-action dump, doing well to get it to Harris despite a QB hit (G Spencer Anderson), with nice YAC for nine yards. So far, these passes have all been on first down. This one was 2nd-and-13, a swing to Warren, with YAC but only gaining four yards. Last example was the final pass of the game, a motion/swing pass to Jefferson, but bad blocks (Pickens, WR Calvin Austin) limited the fail to just a yard. Largely ineffective.
T-2nd. 5-10 air-yards: 22.7-percent. This distance landing here means the three most common distances were ten air yards or less. Yet to be mentioned was a late second-quarter stop route to Austin for seven yards on first down.
Then, another play-action boot left where Pruitt ran and out, pushing it upfield with space at eight air yards on the nine-yard gain. Pittsburgh went back to the same slot stop route to Austin, but the third quarter 3rd-and-8 was less decisive from Fields, leading to a PBU incompletion and another FG.
#4. Explosive (20-plus air-yards): 13.6-percent. Three throws, all to Pickens. Yes, it’s another play-action roll left, but a brilliant play-design right before the half. A beautiful, explosive throw, route, and catch at 30 air yards, efforting a missed tackle but thankfully stepping out of bounds to stop the clock with one second for the field goal.
Third-quarter play-action boot left, but this one was too high for even Pickens, who nearly made a circus one-handed catch near the sideline. The next drive started aggressively, throwing smartly inside of the go-route away from the defender, where Pickens made the fantastic diving catch for a double explosive 40 yards. Among the more frustrating calls though, he was ruled down despite not being touched. Otherwise, b-e-a-utiful.
T-5th. 10-15 air-yards: 4.5-percent. The lone pass was to Pickens, an awesome throw and catch in the first quarter on 3rd-and-12, catching the out route at the sticks despite contested coverage for the pretty conversion.
T-5th. 15-20 air-yards: 4.5-percent. This pass was the aforementioned near circus catch at 20 yards to Pickens, so intermediate passing was sparce, and we’ll see even more clearly in the upcoming visuals.
Here are the dots of completions/incompletions for the game:
Holy outside passing. All but one throw was on or outside the numbers, with the exception barely inside the left numbers (behind the line of scrimmage). The reason is a big question. Whether it was matchup-related, easier reads, what was open, etc. Bottom line, it didn’t lead to any offensive points, and simply won’t cut it moving forward. But the ultimate thing that matters is a win.
Completion Rates By Distance:
FIELDS:
Behind-the-line: 4/5 (80-percent).
0-5 air-yards: 8/10 (80-percent).
5-10 air-yards: 4/5 (80-percent).
10-15 air-yards: 0/1 (0-percent).
15-20 air-yards: 1/1 (100-percent).
Explosive: 2/3 (66.7-percent).
Completion Rates By Location:
FIELDS:
Outside left numbers: 9/12 (75-percent).
Left numbers-left hash: 1/1 (100-percent).
Inside hashes: 0/0 (N/A).
Right hash-right numbers: 1/1 (100-percent).
Outside right numbers: 7/8 (87.5-percent).
Now for the heat maps for charted passes, then completions only:
Gives an even greater sense of the heavy dose of ten yards or less. Intermediate air yards were bleak, but we saw Fields display ability and success there in the preseason. That is a different ball game but on my hopes for Week Two and beyond for Steelers QBs this season. Fields connecting with Pickens on two explosives was awesome, of course, and I hope there’s much more of that in store for Pittsburgh compared to recent seasons.
I can’t wait to see how things progress next week and beyond.
Thanks for reading, and let me know your thoughts in the comments.
