Disturbing Defensive Stat

Caveat to the foundation of this being someone's judgement on what constitutes a missed tackle, but through two weeks PFR has the Steelers racking up the most missed tackles in the league, with 28.

To put that in perspective, the mean across the league is 8, with a standard deviation of 6.15. Meaning, in basic terms, that the Steelers having 28 is a feat less than 0.3% likely to occur. By way of comparison, last year they were best in the league with 69 missed tackles on the season.

Helps explain some things:

• 2025: 4th in Blitz% (39.3%), leading to being 4th in Press% (26.2%) and 1st in QBKD% (18.2%) - but are near the bottom in Sacks (3) and 24th in Sack% (5.2%).
  • 2024: only 12th in Blitz% (25.9%), 17th in Press% (22.0%), and 9th in QBKD% (10.8%) - but slightly more efficient in Sacks (17th) and Sack% (19th).

• 2025: 28th in Average Yards/Attempt (8.8) and Adjusted Net Yards/Attempt (7.9).
  • 2024: 7th in AY/A (6.6) and ANY/A (5.7)
  • ^^Edit: passing attempt^^

• 2025: 28th in rushing yards/game (149.5)
  • 2024: 6th (98.7)

The good news is that maintaining such an outlier of performance in missed tackles is unsustainable. Some regression to the mean should start to be seen.

 

Thanks for the info…. And ruining my day.

Just kidding. I don’t think anyone is surprised. Every stat we have on D is disturbing right now.

 

wtf

 

Simply put. Players (especially) secondary throughout the NFL are terrible at wrapping up players to bring them down. Last night a safety threw a shoulder into TB RB in which he picked up 9 extra yards til a CB finally tackled him. Other times offensive players gain several more yards than they would have had the defensive guy wrapped up instead of trying to strip the ball. Tackling fundamentals have been missing for decades. Now it’s all about those “Splash plays”.

 

Some of these stats can't be correct, because we do the exact same things every year, haven't you heard??? LoL

 

I don't disagree, and think eliminating the horse collar and hip drop tackles have cause some issues as players adjust as well.

 

I have to say, I was surprised our blitz % was that high this year. But I also think it's harder to notice because of smaller overall ILBs, not as many stunts, and less shots from the slot CB/secondary.

If the opposing team is running 11-personnel and we're in a 4-2-5 and send both ILBs, that's considered a blitz, but isn't going to be very effective if they simply pull a Pickett's Charge and bum rush straight up the middle.

 

Agree. I wouldn't want to play defense in the NFL. How do you tackle a guy while thinking about all the 'cans' and 'can't dos'?

 

One of their players told media they were excited for Renegade (played it during practice) and they were surprised the Steelers were so lethargic during it.