Below are the formation rushing and passing stats from the week 5 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars along with the year to date stats through the first 6 games of the 2011 season. One word of caution. The formations are different from the actual personnel on the field as my game charters will list an h-back player at the snap as a running back. This would mean that players like Hines Ward, David Johnson or Heath Miller for example were charted formation wise as being a running back as this gives you a better picture of the formation actually used on a play. The same goes if Miller or a running Read more [...]

It is that time again as I have now finished the offensive line breakdown from the week 6 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. While the first half was not perfect, it was above average and the offense as a whole seemed to have good rhythm and jump early on. The second half was a different story. I kind of relate it to a NASCAR driver saying he had a great car until the engine blew up. if the car does not run good the entire race, the driver has no shot at winning. As I always, I like to disclaimer these breakdowns. Each player is graded as a pass or fail on each play. There is also quite a bit Read more [...]

The Steelers now have 6 games in the books and one thing that sticks out in the stats as far as pass targets goes is that quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is just not connecting with his second year receivers Emmanuel Sanders and Antonio Brown like he should. I have compiled the pass targets through the first 6 games below and as you can see, Roethlisberger only has a 46% completion rate to Brown and an even lower 40% completion rate to Sanders. Now the finger gets pointed to both Roethlisberger and the sophomore receivers here as we have seen Brown miss multiple hot reads thus far this season Read more [...]

Below are the Steelers coverage stats for the week 6 Sunday afternoon game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. 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. Outside of a few plays the Steelers pass defense was once again solid against rookie quarterback Blaine Gabbert allowing just 109 yards on 25 attempts. Ike Taylor gave up the touchdown to Jason Hill and almost gave up another big play had Gabbert Read more [...]

Below are the formation rushing and passing stats from the week 5 game against the Tennessee Titans along with the year to date stats through the first 5 games of the 2011 season. One word of caution. The formations are different from the actual personnel on the field as my game charters will list an h-back player at the snap as a running back. This would mean that players like Hines Ward, David Johnson or Heath Miller for example were charted formation wise as being a running back as this gives you a better picture of the formation actually used on a play. If you want to look at the actual personnel Read more [...]

I have finally gotten around to getting the TOX stats together from week 5 around the NFL and the plus 2 teams went 5-3 this week. Year to date in head to head games the plus 2 teams are 41-11 for a 79% winning percentage. Teams with a mere positive TOX stat went 7-4 this week. Teams with a positive turnover differential went 7-3 overall and teams with the positive explosive play differential also went 7-3 this week. Year to date the Lions still lead with a plus 14 TOX after a dead even week. They are joined at the top now by the 49ers who had a plus 7 week. The Steelers still are recovering Read more [...]

The offensive line breakdown of the Steelers win this past Sunday against the Tennessee Titans is finished and it was a joy breaking this game down. It was pretty evident the line benefited from the quick passing game and limited success that the running game provided. Outside of a few nice openings, there were not huge creases for Isaac Redman and Jonathan Dwyer to run through consistently. The yardage gained was on hard earned runs, but effective enough to make play action a threat. It should be noted that the Steelers had 15 of what you would call successful running plays. This means that Read more [...]

Below are the Steelers coverage stats for the week 5 Sunday afternoon game against the Tennessee Titans. 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 Steelers pass defense was solid as they used quite a bit of dime in passing situations. On non-penalized plays, the Steelers allowed 29 completions on 49 attempts for a 59% completion percentage. While they gave up 262 yards passing, the defense Read more [...]

Below are the formation rushing and passing stats from the week 4 game against the Houston Texans along with the year to date stats through the first 4 games of the 2011 season. One word of caution. The formations are different from the actual personnel on the field as my game charters will list an h-back player at the snap as a running back. This would mean that players like Hines Ward, David Johnson or Heath Miller for example were charted formation wise as being a running back as this gives you a better picture of the formation actually used on a play. If you want to look at the actual personnel Read more [...]

Looking at the week 4 TOX stats by game you can clearly see that the plus 2 number had a field day as it was 8-1. The lone loss involved the Panthers who put up a plus 6 TOX number. That is rare. Year to date teams with a plus 2 TOX in a game are 36-8. That is 82% and about where that number should hover for the season. Also another thing that sticks out is that teams with a positive TOX stat this week went 11-3. Teams that with a positive explosive play differential went 8-3 this week and teams with a positive turnover differential went 9-4 on the week. Year to date total wise the Lions have Read more [...]

Week 4 has come and gone and below is the offensive line report and breakdown for the Steelers week 4 Sunday game on the road against the Houston Texans. As I always like to warn, this grading is done on a play-by-play basis and a good or bad is given on every play. I always caution that it is impossible to know what the assignment on every play is. Thanks to nfl.com there are coaches tape views on several big plays and it makes it much easier to see things from that angle than normal TV camera views along with replays from behind the line of scrimmage. The Steelers offense as a whole gave up Read more [...]

It is that time again to look at the Steelers directional stats after the first 4 games of the season. Below are the rushing and passing stats for the offense and defense by direction after week 4. They include the Steelers NFL ranking in each of the stat categories. Rushing wise on offense you can see that running to the right, their bread and butter side, has not been as awful as you would think. Up the middle and to the left is were they really are struggling albeit they have only run to the left of middle 17 times. The Steelers are a right handed running team and have been for some time, Read more [...]

After week 4 the Steelers are -10 in the turnover differential stat and have only 1 takeaway thus far. That takeaway of course was the sack fumble in week 3 against the Colts caused by linebacker James Harrison. Safety Troy Polamalu scooped it up and returned it for a touchdown. The Steelers defense is currently the only team in the league without an interception. On the giveaway side they have lost 6 fumbles, a league high, and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has already been intercepted 5 times. Roethlisberger only threw 5 regular season interceptions all of last season. He is also responsible Read more [...]

Below are the Steelers coverage stats for the week4 Sunday afternoon game against the Houston Texans. 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 coverage stats in no way tell the story of this game. Texans quarterback Matt Schaub only threw 21 times in the game and only 7 of those attempts were to a wide receiver. The other 14 were throws to a tight end or a running back and he completed 10 Read more [...]

It is time again to check in on the TOX stats from week 3 and the plus 2 stat took a little beating this past week as 4 of the 13 teams with a plus 2 TOX, lost. The Steelers were 1 of the 9 teams with a plus 2 to win this week. Through the first three weeks, teams with a plus 2 TOX stat in a game are 28-7 and that is right at 80%. I have updated the year to date TOX numbers in the bottom table and 12 teams have a positive TOX stat and those teams combined have a 23-13 record. If you need refresher course on what the TOX stat is, I have added the video again from Brian Billick from a few years Read more [...]