With Week 7 in the books, I wanted to provide a favorite stat at Steelers Depot: Adjusted Net Yards Per Pass Attempt (ANY/A). ANY/A is Passing yards – Sack Yards + (20 * Passing TD) – (45 * Interceptions)) / (Passes Attempted + Times Sacked).
First, let’s look at the weekly results for offenses by quarterback, considering Russell Wilson made his Steelers debut in Week Seven:
Here we see that Wilson provided the best OANY/A of Pittsburgh’s season, well above the ideal 6.5 mark (blue line). This number came in at 10.0, a stellar number in the all-important stat that is historically great in the ultimate goal of winning. These great contributions from Wilson aided in doing just that, for the Steelers highest point total of 2024, in the 37-15 victory. This was the fourth-best mark of the week, and 18th on the season (min. 20 game attempts, 198 qualifiers).
In comparison, Justin Fields was above the line in only one of six games, the Week Four loss to Indianapolis (27-24). His OANY/A came in at 7.95, further down in the season ranks at 40th/198.
Here are Pittsburgh’s numbers by week:
Fields Week One: 5.32
Fields Week Two: 5.91
Fields Week Three: 6.09
Fields Week Four: 7.95
Fields Week Five: 5.17
Fields Week Six: 4.0
Wilson Week Seven: 10.0
So, we see Fields was in a slump as a passer in Weeks 5 and 6, particularly the latter which was unacceptable (T-149th of 198). The decision by HC Mike Tomlin to make the change to Wilson makes all the sense in the world when looking at these results, and paid off in spades in Week 7.
Next, here is a visual for total offenses (OANY/A) and defenses (DANY/A) through seven games:
In part to Wilson’s big game, Pittsburgh comfortably lands above the mean on both offense (6.6, 10th) and defense (5.2, T-ninth). One of eight teams to achieve that in 2024 so far: including some great teams like the Bills (5-2), Lions (5-1), Vikings (5-1), Packers (5-2), and the 5-2 Steelers. The only team with more wins to date are the reining back-to-back Super Bowl Champion Chiefs, unbeaten and the biggest outlier of the stat in 2024 so far.
Pittsburgh’s next three opponents are interesting. The New York Giants are up next, at NFL average on defense but much lower on offense with the latter being unsurprising. Following the bye week, Pittsburgh faces two strong offenses in the stat, Washington (7.6, T-third), then the NFL’s best Ravens through Week Seven at a whopping 9.4 OANY/A. This will be interesting to watch unfold moving forward.
Thankfully the Steelers defense has been very strong as well. Let’s see the weekly defensive results:
What jumps out right away is Pittsburgh’s defense being above the ideal blue line in every win in 2024. Allowing a DANY/A number of less than six is the ultimate goal, and has been the biggest catalyst to the Steelers strong record to begin 2024.
Here’s how things have stacked up per game:
Week One: 2.39
Week Two: 3.81
Week Three: 5.00
Week Four: 8.28
Week Five: 6.50
Week Six: 4.71
Week Seven: 4.98
The best mark of 2024 was in the season opener, with that stifling 2.39 mark tying for 20th out of the 214 games played to date, impressively. While they were still strong, we saw a downtrend leading up to the first loss of the season, and worst 8.28 DANY/A of 2024, 168th-of-214 that isn’t up to Pittsburgh’s defensive standards to say the least.
Despite the two-game losing streak, things improved and contributed to the Steelers getting back into the winners circle the last two weeks. Holding their opponents below five ANY/A, and coming off the more impressive performance against the Jets, with a future Hall of Fame passer and loaded pass game weapons.
Here’s to hoping Wilson continues to boost the OANY/A and passing offense, married with the defense being on a role the past couple weeks as well.
To close, here’s a table of the 2024 ANY/A results, sorted by differential with the goal of showing the most balanced teams:
The Pittsburgh Steelers currently have a 1.4 ANY/A differential, ranking ninth-best in the NFL through Week 7. What a breath of fresh air compared to last season, when the offenses abysmal play had them towards the bottom of these ranks consistently.
Here’s to hoping they continue to be strong in these terms, which has aided their strong 5-2 record thus far, which would bode well for the ultimate goal of playoffs and hopefully beyond. I definitely like their chances starting next game against the New York Giants (2-5) who are 24th in ANY/A differential.
