The Pittsburgh Steelers are sitting pretty at 6-2 heading into their bye week. A huge reason is their philosophy of extreme importance in taking care of the football on offense and turning it over on defense.
Today, I’ll look at and provide turnover differential data, which is takeaways (defensive turnovers) – giveaways (offensive turnovers) through Week 2:
Pittsburgh ties for second in the NFL with a plus-10 turnover differential with the Detroit Lions. The only team with a stronger mark is the Buffalo Bills, in first place with an plus-11 turnover differential. Great company to be in, with all three substantially stronger than the rest of the NFL through Week 8. It has also led to winning, with each squad posting six wins to date.
Let’s dive deeper, looking at giveaways (offense) and takeaways (defense):
The Steelers are one of only five teams to land comfortably above the mean in each, along with Buffalo, Detroit, Chicago, and Houston. Funny enough, the Lions have the exact same giveaways (five) and takeaways (15) as Pittsburgh.
That takeaway number ties for second-best with three others: Detroit, Minnesota, and San Francisco. Green Bay is the only better team at an impressive 19 takeaways.
Pittsburgh’s defense has obviously been great in this regard, including ten interceptions (T-second), and 12 forced fumbles (T-sixth). CB Beanie Bishop has come on strong the last two games with three picks, along with CB Donte Jackson also tying for the team lead at three.
Thankfully, the Steelers have a star edge rusher named T.J. Watt, who ties for the league-lead in forced fumbles with four along with two fumble recoveries. These often come in big moments of the game, including the strip-sack and recovery in the fourth quarter last week.
This was after QB Russell Wilson had an excruciating fumble turnover, where Watt stepped up large in typical fashion, a roller-coaster of emotions that sustained the victory. QB Justin Fields had fumbling issues while at the helm, and still ties for the most in the NFL at six. Hopefully fumbles aren’t an issue moving forward with Wilson.
Thankfully, luck has gone Pittsburgh’s way overall, with four of their nine team fumbles (T-13th most) being turned over. The fantastically encouraging element of the Steelers low number of giveaways through eight games is only one interception, by Fields way back in Week 3.
Though Pittsburgh fares very well across the league, one team that has been stronger in the giveaway department, their next opponent in the Washington Commanders. They tie for the best in the NFL with only three giveaways. Rookie second overall pick Jayden Daniels has made noise, including just two interceptions, impressive for a first year QB.
This means only one fumble turnover. Washington has a close number of total fumbles to Pittsburgh with eight, so they have had extreme fumble luck through eight weeks. But Watt is coming to town, and if any man can change that narrative, it’s him.
Here’s to hoping that’s the case, along with the Pittsburgh Steelers continuing to be one of the best teams in the NFL at creating and limiting turnovers. That would bode well to stacking wins against a very tough remaining schedule.
