Below are the initial week 12 offensive and defensive snap counts from the Pittsburgh Steelers 20-14 loss to the Cleveland Browns Sunday. Thanks to his two fumbles in the game Rashard Mendenhall only played 8 snaps in total, so basically you can say that he was benched. Isaac Redman saw only 5 snaps in the game and the same goes for him. Head coach Mike Tomlin obviously wanted to prove a point. Did he? Wide receiver Plaxico Burress only played 11 snaps and that is not too surprising considering how long he has been with the team. At least he was able to draw a pass interference penalty in Read more [...]

Wide receiver Plaxico Burress certainly isn't the same player that he was when he left Pittsburgh visa free agency several years ago, but it doesn't mean that he still cant help the offense in the area where they need it the most - the red zone. Last season when Burress was with the New York Jets he was targeted 19 times in the red zone where he caught 10 of those passes for 7 touchdowns. Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez threw 21 touchdowns in total inside the red zone last season, so Burress accounted for a third of them. So far this season for the Steelers it is tight end Heath Miller who Read more [...]

Below is the week 11 offensive line breakdown for the Pittsburgh Steelers loss to the Baltimore Ravens Sunday night. I think it was pretty obvious to anyone that watched the game that this was not a great performance over all by the Steelers offensive line. There were several demerits handed out in both the pass and run blocking departments with pass protection being the worst of the two. Quarterback Byron Leftwich was sacked 3 times in the game and pressured several other times. The hits allowed on Leftwich also added up and they really made a bigger impact than the pressures did as Leftwich Read more [...]

Week 11 of the 2012 NFL season is now way behind us and so too are the bye weeks as all 32 teams have now played 10 games each. Here now are the TOX stats for the past week along with the year to date numbers for all 32 teams at the bottom. The +2 teams were 8-1 this past week with the Arizona Cardinals being the only team not to win. This brings the year to date +2 number to 83-18 -1 (81%), which is right about at the expected number. Teams with a +1 TOX stat finished 2-2 for the week and that year to date number is a meaningless 22-14 overall. The Pittsburgh Steelers gave up only 2 explosive Read more [...]

Week 11 of the 2012 season is behind us and so too now are all of the bye weeks as well. Below are the ANYPPAD (Adjusted Net Yards Per Passing Attempt Differential) stats year to date. This stat is great for tracking teams success over the season and is a great measuring stick to show which teams might be headed for the post season and which teams might be staying at home as it is based around the passing offense and passing defense of all 32 teams. If you want to get a better understanding of the stat, read here and here is the final regular season ANYPPAD stats from last year. The Pittsburgh Read more [...]

Below are the coverage stats for the Pittsburgh Steelers following their 13-10 Sunday night loss to the Baltimore ravens. The completion percentage of 63% is a bit higher than you would like it to be, but of course the Ravens offense wasn't able to convert well on third downs and never didn't score a touchdown in the game. The yards after the catch numbers are not terribly bad. Only two explosive plays were allowed in this game in addition. Overall it was a pretty impressive performance against the pass for yet another week as the secondary is really playing well. Steelers Defensive Coverage Read more [...]

Below are the initial week 11 offensive and defensive snap counts from the Pittsburgh Steelers 13-10 loss to the Baltimore Ravens Sunday night at Heinz Field. The thing that sticks out the most in the preliminary look at the offense is that running back Chris Rainey only received two snaps in this game that featured the Steelers facing 17 third down situations. Rainey very well could still be bothered by the rib injury suffered a few weeks ago against the New York Giants, but he was healthy enough to return kickoffs Sunday night just the same. While I am not suggesting that he should have played Read more [...]

Prior to the game Sunday night I wrote about how the Pittsburgh Steelers offense would need a few short fields to work with in order to beat the Baltimore Ravens. Those short fields never materialized. Whether it be by turnover or by return, the offense was going to need help as I knew it would be asking too much to continually to expect quarterback Byron Leftwich to drive long fields in his first start since 2009. Although the Steelers defense played lights out, they weren't able to force any turnovers and the punt and kick returns were non existent as well. The Steelers possessed the Read more [...]

By Jeremy Hritz We are only hours away from the first Steelers/Ravens matchup of the 2012 season, and the anticipation is out of control. While much of the attention this week has been on the quarterback position of the Steelers regarding the injury to Ben Roethlisberger and the subsequent anointing of Byron Leftwich as temporary starter, it cannot be ignored that Joe Flacco has played well against the Steelers in the previous two contests. Sunday Night’s game will mark the 11th time Flacco has lined up under center against the Steelers. So what, if anything, stands out about Flacco’s performances Read more [...]

Week 10 of the 2012 NFL season is well in the books. sorry for the delay, but here now are the TOX stats for the week along with the year to date numbers for all 32 teams at the bottom. The +2 teams were a perfect 7-0-1 this week. This brings the year to date +2 number to 75-17 -1 (81%), which means it has now corrected from the beating it took a few weeks back like I thought it would. Teams with a +1 TOX stat finished 2-0 for the second week in a row and that brings that year to date number to 20-12 overall. A meaningless stat but I continue to track it nonetheless. The Pittsburgh Steelers gave Read more [...]

Below are the week 10 offensive and defensive snap counts from the Pittsburgh Steelers 16-13 overtime win over the Kansas City Chiefs Monday at Heinz Field. The Steelers once again saw all five starting linemen play the entire game. Unfortunately starting quarterback Ben Roethlisberger did not as he saw 33 snaps and played just one series into the third quarter before injuring his right shoulder and was replaced by Byron Leftwich. Mike Wallace played every snap in this game while Chris Rainey saw just 2 snaps on offense, likely due to his rib injury suffered the week before. Baron Batch saw Read more [...]

Week 10 of the 2012 season is history and below are the ANYPPAD (Adjusted Net Yards Per Passing Attempt Differential) stats year to date. This stat is great for tracking teams success over the season and is a great measuring stick to show which teams might be headed for the post season and which teams might be staying at home as it is based around the passing offense and passing defense of all 32 teams. If you want to get a better understanding of the stat, read here and here is the final regular season ANYPPAD stats from last year. The Pittsburgh Steelers climbed up one spot this week despite Read more [...]

When you look at the defensive stat line from the Pittsburgh Steelers 16-13 win Monday night over the Kansas City Chiefs you will see that safety Ryan Clark led the team in combined tackles with 10. He had 8 solo tackles and 2 assist to be specific. This post is not aimed at slapping Clark as I believe that he has played great this season, and good Monday night. The point I want to make in this post is that Clark was forced to make too many tackles against the run at the second level, or after 5 yards to be specific. 8 of the tackles that Clark made Monday night were run tackles with 6 of Read more [...]

The shoulder injury suffered by Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger certainly is the top story right now, but now that we have some clarity as to what it actually is, we can now move on to other topics. One of those topics should be the play of the Steelers pass defense in the last four games. Sure, all four of those games only saw them face one upper tier quarterback in the form of Eli Manning, but this same pass defense didn't fare so well earlier in the season against the likes of Matt Hasselbeck and Carson Palmer, both of whom are considered middle of the road quarterbacks Read more [...]

Below is the week 9 offensive line breakdown for the Pittsburgh Steelers win over the New York Giants For a team that rushed for 158 yards you would think that the run blocking would have been consistently good. Don't get me wrong, there were several plays were the blocking was excellent as a unit that produced some good runs, but a lot of credit in this game goes to Isaac Redman, who had tons of yardage after first contact. The Giants defensive tackles did a pretty good job overall at controlling the gaps, but their defense over all, especially their linebackers, did a poor job of making plays. Read more [...]

Through the first 8 games of the season Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has only been sacked 17 times which is a rate of 2.125 a game. Should he stay on that same pace it would wind up being the lowest per game rate since the 2005 season, a season that saw him play in just 12 games. The new offense has of course led to the drop in sacks as Roethlisberger is getting rid of the ball quicker, or so we think. Pro Football Focus has a new stat that they call, "Time To Throw," which measures how long a quarterback has to throw, the average sack time and difference in completion Read more [...]

Below are the coverage stats for the Pittsburgh Steelers following their 24-20 Sunday win against the New York Giants. The completion percentage of 42% was absolutely fantastic. The yards after the catch numbers could be a little better, but being as the defense only allowed two explosive plays of over 20 yards, you cant really complain. Not shown are the two pass interference calls on Keenan Lewis. Outside of those two pass interference calls, Lewis only allowed one completion out of six passes thrown his direction. These stats show quarter, down and distance and liner of scrimmage as well. Steelers Read more [...]

Week 9 of the 2012 NFL season is completed and here are the TOX stats for the week along with the year to date numbers for all 32 teams at the bottom. I told you that the +2 number would correct and it indeed did as the +2 teams were a perfect 10-0 this week. This brings the year to date +2 number to 68-17 (80%), which is right at the expected number. Funny how that happens, right? This stat is not sexy, but so money. Teams with a +1 TOX stat finished 2-0 for the week and that brings that year to date number to 18-12 overall. Still a really meaningless stat as I have pointed out several times Read more [...]

Week 9 of the 2012 season is now behind us and the picture is really becoming much more clearer now in regard to the ANYPPAD (Adjusted Net Yards Per Passing Attempt Differential) stats year to date. This stat is great for tracking teams success over the season and is a great measuring stick to show which teams might be headed for the post season and which teams might be staying at home as it is based around the passing offense and passing defense of all 32 teams. If you want to get a better understanding of the stat, read here and here is the final regular season ANYPPAD stats from last year. The Read more [...]

Below are the week 9 official gamebook offensive and defensive snap counts from the Pittsburgh Steelers 24-20 win over the New York Giants Sunday at MetLife Stadium. The Steelers starting five linemen made the whole game for yet another game, so you have to be excited about that. Cornerback Curtis Brown saw no defensive snaps in the game as the Steelers failed to use the dime. Once again Steve McLendon and Cameron Heyward saw very limited playing time in  the game. Jerricho Cotchery saw extra snaps because of the injury to Antonio Brown and Emmanuel Sanders also saw extra snaps as a result. Steelers Read more [...]