Pittsburgh Steelers 2011 Down Analysis Play Report By Pass, Run & Scramble

I was asked by a reader in the post I did on Rashard Mendenhall and Isaac Redman directional rushes last season as to what the number of times the Pittsburgh Steelers rushed versus passed on third and short last year. The premise of the question I gather was to claim that the offense did not run enough on third down with three yards or less to go.

Instead of just pulling those down and distance numbers, I went ahead and pulled the down analysis report from the regular season and posted the entire thing below in case anyone was looking for a particular down and distance.

Keep in mind that these numbers do not include penalties. Also keep in mind while reading these stats that time in the game and score is not notated. This is just a raw down and distance analysis report.

To answer the question on run versus pass on third down and three yards or less, the Steelers ran 55 plays of which 19 were runs, 35 were passes and 1 was a scramble. It should be noted that one of those 35 pass plays resulted in a sack of quarterback Charlie Batch in the first game against the Cleveland Browns.

When looking at third down and two yards or less to go, the Steelers ran 19 times, passed 16 times and had 1 scramble. Basically the difference in two yards or less and three yards or less is that the offense never ran on third down and three. They opted instead to pass all 19 times on third and three situations during the regular season.

As far as third down and short conversions with three or less yards to go, the Steelers converted 33 of 55 plays for a 60% conversion rate. On third down and two or less to go, the Steelers converted 22 of 36 plays for a 61% conversion rate.

Hopefully this answers the questions in that post.