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 [...]

The Pittsburgh Steelers lost to the Oakland Raiders 34-31 Sunday at Oakland and now we have our third look at the offense of Todd Halley, and more specifically, the personnel groupings that he has used now in the three games and how each performs down and distance wise year to date. Because of the injuries that the Raiders had in their secondary, it was expected that we would see more 11 personnel this week, which features 3 wide receivers. 41 of their 70 offensive snaps used this grouping and it was extensively when the Steelers offense went to the no-huddle. The second most popular grouping Read more [...]

Below are the passing and rushing stats from the Pittsburgh Steelers 27-10 win over the New York Jets this past Sunday broken down by personnel groupings. While the overall run/pass balance was about even in the game, 13 of the 28 rushes came when the offense used 13 personnel, which is 1 running back and 3 tight ends. No passes were thrown out of that grouping. When in 11 personnel, which utilizes 3 wide receivers, 12 of the 15 plays were pass plays and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was sacked on 1 of those 15. Something to keep your eye on when tight end Weslye Saunders returns is the 12 Read more [...]

Below are the coverage stats for the Pittsburgh Steelers following their Sunday home opening win against the New York Jets. I always like to warn with these stats that Steelers play a whole lot of zone coverage so don't get so caught up in completion percentages. The best thing to look at is the length of the completions and the yards after catch number in my opinion. The Steelers defense prides itself on wrapping up quickly after the catch and not allowing a lot of YAC. Steelers Defensive Coverage Stats Versus Jets PLAYER ATT COMP COMP % YDS YPA YAC TD INT 25-R.Clark 2 0 0% 0 0.0 0 0 0 94-L.Timmons 2 0 0% 0 0.0 0 0 0 24-I.Taylor 7 1 14% 14 2.0 3 1 0 28-C.Allen 5 2 40% 33 6.6 3 0 0 N/A 2 1 50% 2 1.0 0 0 0 29-R.Mundy 2 1 50% 11 5.5 2 0 0 56-L.Woodley 2 1 50% 7 3.5 2 0 0 23-K.Lewis 4 3 75% 58 14.5 20 0 0 50-L.Foote 1 1 100% 13 13.0 4 0 0 TOTALS 27 10 37% 138 5.1 34 1 0 Steelers Read more [...]

The run blocking in this game was pretty bad and there were only about 4 plays in total where I thought all 5 linemen did their job well at the same time. If it is any consolation, I thought the pass protection overall was good, but a shorter passing game and quicker release by quarterback Ben Roethlisberger certainly helps this area out. PLAYER # TOT + - TOT % # RUN + - RUN % # PASS + - PASS % S P H F Mike Adams 1 1 0 100% 1 1 0 100% 0 0 0 N/A! 0 0 0 0 Marcus Gilbert 63 56 7 89% 28 23 5 82% 35 33 2 94% 0 2 0 1 Maurkice Pouncey 65 56 9 86% 29 22 7 76% 36 34 2 94% 1 0 0 1 Ramon Read more [...]

I have pointed out the problems that the Pittsburgh Steelers have had running the ball on first and second down through their first two games of the 2012 season, but their opponent in week 3, the Oakland Raiders, have had their problems as well on the early run downs. So far against the San Diego Chargers and the Miami Dolphins the Raiders running backs have 29 carries on first and second down for a total of 60 rushing yards. That equates to just a hair over 2.0 yards per carry. 8 of those 29 carries have gone for zero or negative yardage and only 4 have gone for more than 5 yards, with 11 Read more [...]

There is one thing that you can say about Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin, and that is that he never disrespects an opponent. Every week during his Tuesday press conference he rolls through the upcoming opposition on both sides of the ball which often times makes you think that each and every team he is about to face is full of Pro Bowl type players. When the Steelers travel out west this coming weekend to take on the Oakland Raiders, they will see a familiar face in quarterback Carson Palmer, who will be facing the Steelers on Sunday for the 13th time in the regular season. Palmer Read more [...]

Week 2 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 teams headed for the post season and teams staying 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 like to caution that it is really hard to read much into these stats until a good 4 or 5 games into the season for each team as you will see quite a bit Read more [...]

Week 2 of the 2012 NFL season is in the books and here are the second set of TOX stats for season along with the year to date numbers for all 32 teams at the bottom. For the second week in a row teams with a +2 TOX stat went 9-1 overall and that brings the year to date number to 18-2 (90%). Teams with a +1 TOX stat went 3-2 in week 2 and that brings that year to date number to 6-3 overall. The Atlanta Falcons had a great Monday night TOX stat of +7 thanks in part to the 3 interceptions thrown by Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning. The Pittsburgh Steelers had a +3 TOX stat against the Read more [...]

We all know how clutch that Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is on third downs, and if you need a reminder, he was 8-of-10 for 119 yards with a touchdown in the 27-10 win on Sunday against the New York Jets. While that great ability of his needs no more glossing from me any time soon, I thought we should take a look at the third down receiving numbers of the Young Money Crew since they came into the league. Since he was drafted, Antonio Brown has been targeted 58 times on third downs and he has caught 38 of those passes (65.5%) for 566 yards and a touchdown. While making Read more [...]

Last week I noted the poor job the Pittsburgh Steelers did in their opener against the Denver Broncos at tackling the catch as they allowed 126 total YAC in that game. Now of course it did not help that Broncos wide receiver Demaryius Thomas had 70 of those yards on the 1 yard screen pass from quarterback Peyton Manning that ended in a touchdown 70 yards later, but you just can't back those yards out as every play counts. In the win Sunday against the New York Jets, not only did the Steelers defense allow just 10 pass completions on the day, they also only allowed just 34 YAC on those 10 catches Read more [...]

The Pittsburgh Steelers beat to the New York Jets 27-10 in the home opener Sunday at Heinz Field and now we have our second look at the offense of Todd Halley, and more specifically, the personnel groupings that he has used now in the two games and how each performs down and distance wise year to date. As I noted last week, we saw the offense use 3 wide receivers quite a bit more than I expected we would see in the opener, but that ended up being a result of the heavy use of the no-huddle offense and how the ebb and flow of the game went. I also stated this past week that I thought we would Read more [...]

One thing that is obviously lacking on offense for the Pittsburgh Steelers through the first two games of the 2012 season is the ability to run the ball well on first and second downs. On first down the running game has produced just 91 yards of offense on 29 carries for a dismal 3.14 yards per attempt. Second down has been even worse as it has produced only 21 yards of offense on 18 rushing attempts with only Jonathan Dwyer having a positive yards per carry number after the first two games of the season. When you combine both downs together, the Steelers running game has all of 112 yards Read more [...]

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger needed just one more passing yard in the Sunday win over the New York Jets to give him an even 12,100 for his career, but that yard and many more will come. On Sunday the Steelers quarterback become the 52nd player to pass for more than 27,000 yards and he passed NFL greats Steve Grogan (26,886 ) and George Blanda (26,920)  on the all-time list in career passing yards. Steelers Hall of Fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw threw for 27,989 passing yards during his career in Pittsburgh so Roethlisberger figures to become the Steelers’ all-time Read more [...]

Season 3, Episode 15 of The Terrible Podcast is up and co-host David Todd I start of by recapping the Tuesday press conference of Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin and recap the injury situation heading into the week. With the Denver Broncos game still visible in the rear-view mirror, David and I take a little closer look at the game and what went right and what went wrong. We also discuss the personnel groupings used on offense in the game and ponder if we will continue to see so many 3 wide receiver sets moving forward. We talk about the offensive line play a bit and try to wrap the Read more [...]

If you have been following this site for a while, you know that in addition to the TOX (Turnovers & Explosive Plays) stat being one of my favorites to track, so too is the ANYPPAD (Adjusted Net Yards Per Passing Attempt Differential) stat. This stat is great for tracking teams success over the season and is a great measuring stick to show teams headed for the post season and teams staying 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. This stat is really not worth getting upset over until after week Read more [...]

The first set of TOX stats for 2012 NFL season have been compiled, and as expected, the well respected +2 number is off to a good start as teams that had a +2 or better number went 9-1 overall. The stat is based off explosive plays of 20 yards or more and turnovers. The actual stat is derived by taking the differential of both of these stats. I track this stat every year and if you want to know the meaning of it, watch the video below. Teams with a +1 TOX stat went 3-1 in week 1 with the Pittsburgh Steelers being the lone team to lose. The Chicago Bears lead the way in explosive plays Read more [...]

One thing that stuck out statistically Sunday night in the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-19 loss to the Denver Broncos was the play once again of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger on third downs. If you have heard or seen the clips that are floating around after the Sunday night game, you likely saw the post-game exchange between Roethlisberger and Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning. During that exchange Manning told Roethlisberger, "Good job on third downs, tonight." I have written many a post on how good of quarterback that Roethlisberger is on third down, so it is no surprise that he once again Read more [...]

Several have emailed and asked if I would be doing the directional reports again this year, so below is the rushing and passing offense and defense play direction report from the Pittsburgh Steelers Sunday night opener against the Denver Broncos. I have included the league ranks in these as well. This report will be part of the weekly reports that we provide moving forward in the season. 2012 Pittsburgh Steelers Regular Season Play Direction Report - Week 1 RUSHING OFFENSE Left EndLeft Tackle Left GuardUp the Middle Right GuardRight Tackle Right End Plays: 7 Plays: 3Plays: 3Plays: Read more [...]

The Pittsburgh Steelers lost to the Denver Broncos 31-19 in the season opener and now we have our first look at the new offense of Todd Halley, and more specifically, the personnel groupings that he used down and distance wise. Haley, who chose to use a lot of 12 personnel during the preseason, meaning one running back, two tight ends and two wide receivers, instead primarily used 11 personnel, one running back, one tight end and three wide receivers, Sunday night against the Broncos. In fact 52 of the 71 offensive plays that the Steelers ran included three wide receivers on the field. The Read more [...]