Below are the week 6 official gamebook snap counts from the Pittsburgh Steelers 26-23 loss to the Tennessee Titans Thursday night. Offensively the thing of course that sticks out is the Steelers losing both Maurkice Pouncey and Marcus Gilbert so early in the game. Pouncey left after 1 play and Gilbert after 15 plays. This resulted in extended playing time for Doug Legursky and Mike Adams. The extra snaps for Baron Batch was a result of Rashard Mendenhall and Isaac Redman both going down injured. Defensively we saw the season debut of Robert Golden who was on the field for 2 plays in the game Read more [...]

Below is the week 5 offensive line breakdown for the Pittsburgh Steelers game against the Philadelphia Eagles. The short week has me a bit behind schedule so I apologize for the delay in getting this up. This was easily the best performance the Steelers offensive line has had all season, even with the four holding calls. There were several nice lanes for the running backs and the pass protection was solid as no sacks were allowed in the game. The line wore down the Eagles front and they ran down hill it seemed for most of the second half as result. PLAYER #TOT + - TOT % # RUN + - RUN Read more [...]

Week 5 of the 2012 NFL season is in the books and here 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 5-0 this week and that brings the year to date +2 number to 39-7 (85%), which is 5% higher than the expected number. Teams with a +1 TOX stat did not do so well this week as they finished a combined 2-4 for the week and that brings that year to date number to 13-9 overall. The Oakland Raiders, Dallas Cowboys, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the Detroit Lions were all on a bye in week and thus their year to date numbers Read more [...]

Elias Sports Bureau has made an official scoring change on Wednesday and has now credited Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger as throwing a 13 yard touchdown pass to running back Rashard Mendenhall in the game against the Philadelphia Eagles after it was originally scored a lateral. The official stat change now means Roethlisberger has 9 touchdown passes on the season as opposed to 8 and he gets an additional 13 yards passing as well. The stat change also means that Mendenhall has 13 yards less rushing and 13 more yards receiving to go along with an additional reception. I Read more [...]

The Pittsburgh Steelers rushed for a season high 136 yards this past Sunday in their win over the Philadelphia Eagles and odds are that they should have some success Thursday night against the Tennessee Titans as well. Through their first five games the Titans defense is allowing an average of 144.2 rushing yards per game and 4.19 yards per carry. Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings they allowed 175 yards on the ground with running back Adrian Peterson accounting for 88 of them. So where are the Titans the weakest directionally? Pretty much everywhere, but specifically off of right guard. As Read more [...]

Below are the coverage stats for the Pittsburgh Steelers following their Sunday win against the Philadelphia Eagles. While the completion percentage was high at 67%, the defense did do a good job tackling after the catch outside of two plays. Not shown is the pass interference call on Ike Taylor. These stats show quarter, down and distance and liner of scrimmage as well. The 2 passing touchdown allowed were charged to Ryan Mundy and Larry Foote. Steelers Defensive Coverage Stats Versus Eagles PLAYER ATT COMP COMP % YDS YPA YAC TD INT 25-R.Clark 1 0 0% 0 0.0 0 0 0 93-J.Worilds 1 0 0% 0 0.0 0 0 0 24-I.Taylor 8 4 50% 67 8.4 15 0 0 94-L.Timmons 2 1 50% 12 6.0 0 0 0 29-R.Mundy 5 3 60% 14 2.8 1 1 0 23-K.Lewis 4 3 75% 24 6.0 2 0 0 28-C.Allen 1 1 100% 12 12.0 0 0 0 50-L.Foote 4 4 100% 21 5.3 19 1 0 NA 4 4 100% 20 5.0 22 0 0 TOTALS 30 20 67% 170 5.7 59 2 0 Steelers Read more [...]

Below are the offensive player play counts and participation chart for the Pittsburgh Steelers week 5 game against the Philadelphia Eagles. Player Notes: With Rashard Mendenhall back from injury, Jonathan Dwyer, as expected, was inactive. In addition, Baron Batch never saw the field on offense. Rookie tight end David Paulson saw extensive playing time at the expense of Leonard Pope and we already pointed this out in a previous post. Although it was original thought that Pope saw no snaps on offense, he actually was in on the final offensive play as a third tight end. The Steelers used 2 or Read more [...]

Week 5 of the 2012 NFL season is behind us and here are the final 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. With week 6 quickly approaching, we are starting Read more [...]

The 13 yard touchdown that Pittsburgh Steelers running back Rashard Mendenhall scored in the win over the Philadelphia Eagles was officially scored as a run and not a pass from quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. The official scorer viewed the pass from Roethlisberger as being a lateral and I have had a few request to take a closer look at the play. Obviously this play could make the difference in a fantasy football matchup, and besides, it never hurts to get Roethlisberger another touchdown pass if we can. I have posted an animated gif of the play below along with 3 still shots that show the Read more [...]

Below are the week 5 official gamebook snap counts from the Pittsburgh Steelers 16-14 win over the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday. Offensively, Rashard Mendenhall had 22 snaps in his first game back from a torn ACL and he touched the ball on 16 of those snaps. Tight end Leonard Pope did not see the field and rookie David Paulson played 19 snaps in total. It is not hard to guess who will be out the door when the corresponding move for Weslye Saunders ultimately needs to be made. Mike Adams saw the field for his 3 plays at right tackle in place of Marcus Gilbert, who needed his groin attended to. Defensively Read more [...]

I talked all week about how I thought the Pittsburgh Steelers should have success running the ball up the middle against the Philadelphia Eagles and that is exactly where the running backs had their success Sunday in the 16-14 win at Heinz Field. The running game of course was sparked by the return of Rashard Mendenhall, who was seeing his first game action since tearing the ACL in his right knee in the season finale last year against the Cleveland Browns. According to the initial play-by-play report, Mendenhall and fellow running back Isaac Redman ran 11 times right up the middle for 48 Read more [...]

I have pointed out several times this season how good Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is on third downs and today we will look at how he has done through the first three games using play action. Late last season it was pointed out by STATS just how good Roethlisberger was using play action and he is off to another good start in 2012 as well. Heading into the Sunday game against the Philadelphia Eagles the Steelers quarterback is 15-of-20 for 136 yards and 2 touchdowns on 21 play action drop backs. He has been sacked just once and hasn't thrown an interception. These numbers Read more [...]

Week 4 of the 2012 NFL season is in the books and here are the TOX stats for the week along with the year to date numbers for all 32 teams at the bottom. The +2 or better number was back on track this week as it finished 10-1. That brings the year to date +2 number to 34-7 (83%), which is 3% higher than the expected number. The New Orleans Saints were the lone team to lose this week and they did so with a whopping +6 number. Trust me when I say that as long as quarterback Drew Brees is healthy, this team will start winning some games soon. The problem is that they are in the same division as the Read more [...]

Football Outsiders and Advanced NFL Stats do a tremendous job of drilling down stats on a play-by-level, and you should be well aware of both sites by now. While my drill downs are a lot more basic in nature, I often times like to drill down the play-by-play to just success or failure the way the book "The Hidden Game of Football" first laid it out several years ago. In summation, the authors of the book stated that a play was considered a successful one on first down if 40% or more of the yardage needed to make a new first down was gained. On second down a play is deemed successful if 60% Read more [...]

Week 4 of the 2012 NFL season is now in the books and here are the final ANYPPAD (Adjusted Net Yards Per Passing Attempt Differential) stats year to date. As i have mentioned previously, 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. 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. I always caution at the beginning of the season that it is really hard to read much into Read more [...]

Below are the passing and rushing stats from the Pittsburgh Steelers 34-31 loss to the Oakland Raiders this past Sunday broken down by personnel groupings. 32 of the 54 rushing yards in this game came when the offense had a fullback or second running back on the field. Although not great great it produced a 3.56 yards per carry on 9 rushes. Year to date on 24 rushes with a fullback, or second back on the field, the offense has rushed for 70 of their 196 total rushing yards, which is still under 3 yards per carry. Another thing that sticks out is that with 2 or more tight ends on the field, the Read more [...]

A reader emailed me to ask about the first down woes thus far this season for the Pittsburgh Steelers on defense, so I thought I would compile the results league wide and have a look at it. First let's look at the Steelers in the regular season on first down over the course of the last several years as a comparison starting point. 2011 - 200 rushing plays (3.98 average yards per rush), 201 passing plays (4.38 average yards per passing play) 2010 - 173 rushing plays (2.52 average yards per rush), 247 passing plays (5.17 average yards per passing play) 2009 - 191 rushing plays (3.71 average Read more [...]

Below are the coverage stats for the Pittsburgh Steelers following their Sunday loss to the Oakland Raiders Steelers Defensive Coverage Stats Versus Raiders PLAYER ATT COMP COMP % YDS YPA YAC TD INT 53-C.Carter 1 0 0% 0 0.0 0 0 0 23-K.Lewis 6 2 33% 27 4.5 -8 0 0 24-I.Taylor 8 5 63% 31 3.9 7 1 0 29-R.Mundy 3 2 67% 4 1.3 0 2 0 28-C.Allen 4 3 75% 33 8.3 2 0 0 99-B.Keisel 1 1 100% -3 -3.0 4 0 0 25-R.Clark 1 1 100% 7 7.0 0 0 0 93-J.Worilds 2 2 100% 15 7.5 10 0 0 94-L.Timmons 2 2 100% 18 9.0 6 0 0 50-L.Foote 2 2 100% 33 16.5 18 0 0 NA 4 4 100% 44 11.0 24 0 0 Steelers Read more [...]

Week 2 of the 2012 NFL season is in the books and here are the second set of TOX stats for the week along with the year to date numbers for all 32 teams at the bottom. The +2 number did not perform up to standards this week as it finished 6-4. that brings the year to date +2 number to 24-6 (80%), which is the expected win percentage of the stat. Funny how that works and evens out. The Pittsburgh Steelers were one of the four teams that had a +2 TOX or better number that lost this week. Despite the two losses, the defense is doing a good job at limiting explosive plays through the first three Read more [...]

Week 3 of the 2012 NFL season is now behind us and here are the final 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. 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. I always like to caution that it is really hard to read much into these stats until a good 4 or 5 games into the season Read more [...]