Below are the Steelers coverage stats for the week 8 Sunday afternoon game against the New England Patriots. They are broken down by play and include down and distance, line of scrimmage, direction, yards gained, yards after catch, personnel the offense used, defensive package, number of pass rushers and whether or not the defense blitzed on the play.
The big thing that sticks out this week is how good the defense did for the most part at not allowing many yards after the catch against a team that has made a living off it this season. On 24 completions the Patriots had 91 yards after the catch, but that is way off of their average after catch this season and Wes Welker was held to just 3 yards after the catch on 6 catches. He led the league in YAC heading into the game and Ike Taylor really did a number on him when he was in charge of covering him.
William Gay and Keenan Lewis continued their strong play as well against the Patriots. Lewis gave up the short touchdown to Deion Branch, but that was very hard to defend and the ball was thrown only where Branch could have caught it.
Ryan Mundy and Cortez Allen drew tight end Rob Gronkowski several times each down in the slot and both gave up catches to him. Gronkowski had a good game, but it was a far cry from the 3 touchdown game he had last year against the Steelers.
On the day, Tom Brady still finished with a 69% completion ratio, but the Patriots only hit on one passing play of 20 yards or more and Brady threw for a very modest 198 yards. All in all it was an outstanding performance in coverage against arguable the best quarterback in the game.
Coverage Stats By Play
| D&D | LOS | COMP | TARGET | COVERAGE | YDS | YAC | PERS | # RUSH | BLITZ | DEF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-10 | NE 40 | YES | 81-A.Hernandez | 94-L.Timmons | 8 | 3 | 11 | 5 | YES | BASE |
| 3-3 | NE 47 | NO | 84-D.Branch | 22-W.Gay | 0 | 0 | 11 | 4 | NO | DIME |
| 1-10 | NE 20 | YES | 83-W.Welker | 50-L.Foote | 7 | 0 | 2 | 3 | NO | BASE |
| 1-10 | NE 31 | YES | 33-K.Faulk | N/A | 7 | 5 | 12 | 4 | NO | BASE |
| 1-15 | PIT 48 | NO | 83-W.Welker | 29-R.Mundy | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | YES | DIMB |
| 2-15 | PIT 48 | NO | N/A | N/A | 0 | 0 | 12 | 5 | YES | DIME |
| 2-2 | PIT 2 | YES | 84-D.Branch | 23-K.Lewis | 2 | 0 | 12 | 6 | YES | DIME |
| 1-10 | NE 20 | YES | 87-R.Gronkowski | 29-R.Mundy | 23 | 18 | 12 | 6 | YES | DIME |
| 2-12 | NE 41 | YES | 83-W.Welker | 24-I.Taylor | 10 | 3 | 12 | 5 | YES | DIME |
| 3-2 | PIT 49 | YES | 83-W.Welker | 24-I.Taylor | 2 | -1 | 12 | 4 | NO | DIME |
| 1-10 | PIT 47 | NO | 87-R.Gronkowski | 28-C.Allen | 0 | 0 | 12 | 4 | NO | DIME |
| 2-10 | PIT 47 | YES | 87-R.Gronkowski | 28-C.Allen | 17 | 0 | 12 | 4 | NO | DIME |
| 2-17 | PIT 37 | NO | 87-R.Gronkowski | 43-T.Polamalu | 0 | 0 | 12 | 4 | NO | DIME |
| 2-8 | NE 23 | NO | 83-W.Welker | 24-I.Taylor | 0 | 0 | 12 | 4 | NO | DIME |
| 3-8 | NE 23 | YES | 87-R.Gronkowski | 28-C.Allen | 7 | 0 | 11 | 5 | YES | DIME |
| 1-10 | NE 21 | YES | 87-R.Gronkowski | N/A | 19 | 20 | 13 | 4 | NO | DIME |
| 1-10 | PIT 45 | YES | 84-D.Branch | 24-I.Taylor | 10 | 0 | 12 | 5 | NO | BASE |
| 1-10 | PIT 35 | YES | 84-D.Branch | N/A | 8 | 8 | 12 | 4 | NO | DIMB |
| 1-15 | PIT 29 | YES | 83-W.Welker | 24-I.Taylor | 4 | 0 | 12 | 4 | NO | DIME |
| 2-11 | PIT 25 | NO | 81-A.Hernandez | 23-K.Lewis | 0 | 0 | 12 | 4 | NO | DIME |
| 3-11 | PIT 25 | YES | 33-K.Faulk | 43-T.Polamalu | 1 | 0 | 12 | 5 | YES | DIME |
| 1-10 | NE 20 | NO | 17-T.Price | 24-I.Taylor | 0 | 0 | 13 | 5 | NO | BASE |
| 3-2 | NE 28 | YES | 87-R.Gronkowski | 28-C.Allen | 10 | 8 | 12 | 4 | NO | DIME |
| 1-10 | NE 38 | NO | 85-C.Ochocinco | 23-K.Lewis | 0 | 0 | 13 | 4 | NO | DIME |
| 3-8 | NE 40 | YES | 33-K.Faulk | N/A | -6 | 1 | 12 | 5 | YES | DIME |
| 1-10 | NE 33 | YES | 83-W.Welker | 24-I.Taylor | 8 | 1 | 12 | 4 | NO | DIME |
| 2-2 | NE 41 | YES | 84-D.Branch | 22-W.Gay | 16 | 9 | 12 | 4 | NO | DIME |
| 1-10 | PIT 43 | YES | 87-R.Gronkowski | 28-C.Allen | 10 | 1 | 12 | 4 | NO | DIME |
| 1-10 | PIT 33 | YES | 33-K.Faulk | N/A | 18 | 15 | 12 | 5 | YES | DIME |
| 1-10 | PIT 15 | YES | 83-W.Welker | 24-I.Taylor | 8 | 0 | 12 | 4 | NO | DIME |
| 2-2 | PIT 7 | NO | 81-A.Hernandez | 22-W.Gay | 0 | 0 | 12 | 5 | YES | DIME |
| 1-4 | PIT 4 | NO | 84-D.Branch | 23-K.Lewis | 0 | 0 | 12 | 4 | NO | DIME |
| 2-9 | PIT 9 | YES | 87-R.Gronkowski | 29-R.Mundy | 1 | 0 | 12 | 4 | NO | DIME |
| 3-1 | PIT 1 | YES | 33-K.Faulk | 25-R.Clark | 1 | 0 | 12 | 4 | NO | DIME |
| 1-1 | PIT 1 | YES | 81-A.Hernandez | 43-T.Polamalu | 1 | 0 | 23 | 6 | YES | GOAL |
Coverage Stats By Player
| PLAYER | ATT | COMP | COMP % | YDS | YPA | YAC | TD | INT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23-K.Lewis | 4 | 1 | 25% | 2 | 0.5 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 22-W.Gay | 3 | 1 | 33% | 16 | 5.3 | 9 | 0 | 0 |
| 43-T.Polamalu | 3 | 2 | 67% | 2 | 0.7 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 29-R.Mundy | 3 | 2 | 67% | 24 | 8.0 | 18 | 0 | 0 |
| 24-I.Taylor | 8 | 6 | 75% | 42 | 5.3 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 28-C.Allen | 5 | 4 | 80% | 44 | 8.8 | 9 | 0 | 0 |
| N/A | 6 | 5 | 83% | 46 | 7.7 | 49 | 0 | 0 |
| 50-L.Foote | 1 | 1 | 100% | 7 | 7.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 94-L.Timmons | 1 | 1 | 100% | 8 | 8.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 25-R.Clark | 1 | 1 | 100% | 12 | 12.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
