Steelers Offense and Defense rankings by year since 1995

I thought this was interesting.

Year | OC | DC | Total Off Rank | Total Def Rank
---|---|---|---|---
1995 | Ron Erhardt | Dick LeBeau | 5 | 9
1996 | Chan Gailey | Dick LeBeau | 11 | 4
1997 | Chan Gailey | Jim Haslett | 7 | 11
1998 | Ray Sherman | Jim Haslett | 28 | 7
1999 | Kevin Gilbride | Jim Haslett | 17 | 12
2000 | Kevin Gilbride | Tim Lewis | 17 | 6
2001 | Mike Mularkey | Tim Lewis | 7 | 3
2002 | Mike Mularkey | Tim Lewis | 8 | 16
2003 | Mike Mularkey | Tim Lewis | 19 | 15
2004 | Ken Whisenhunt | Dick LeBeau | 11 | 1
2005 | Ken Whisenhunt | Dick LeBeau | 9 | 3
2006 | Ken Whisenhunt | Dick LeBeau | 12 | 11
2007 | Bruce Arians | Dick LeBeau | 9 | 2
2008 | Bruce Arians | Dick LeBeau | 20 | 1
2009 | Bruce Arians | Dick LeBeau | 12 | 12
2010 | Bruce Arians | Dick LeBeau | 12 | 1
2011 | Bruce Arians | Dick LeBeau | 21 | 1
2012 | Todd Haley | Dick LeBeau | 22 | 6
2013 | Todd Haley | Dick LeBeau | 16 | 14
2014 | Todd Haley | Dick LeBeau | 7 | 18
2015 | Todd Haley | Keith Butler | 4 | 11
2016 | Todd Haley | Keith Butler | 10 | 10
2017 | Todd Haley | Keith Butler | 8 | 7
2018 | Randy Fichtner | Keith Butler | 6 | 16
2019 | Randy Fichtner | Keith Butler | 27 | 5
2020 | Randy Fichtner | Keith Butler | 12 | 3
2021 | Matt Canada | Keith Butler | 21 | 20
2022 | Matt Canada | Teryl Austin | 26 | 10
2023 | Matt Canada (fired mid-season), Eddie Faulkner | Teryl Austin | 28 | 6
2024 | Arthur Smith | Teryl Austin | 16 | 8
2025* | Arthur Smith | Teryl Austin | 23 | 23

*2025 rankings are mid-season (through Week 10) and subject to change; based on total yards per game.

interesting enough if you take the above list 5 guys under Cowher went on to become Head Coaches in the NFL. This doesn’t include Lebeau who was a HC before coming back to Pittsburgh to coach defense.

‘Tomlin has zero. He does have three former HC’s who have coached under him.

‘Obviously when you look at the rankings they don’t tell the whole story like aging players and injuries to blue chip players but you can see for the most part under Lebeau the defense was nearly always a top 10 unit It’s been spotty up and down since Lebeau has left. What’s coercing is we never in our history invested this much in the defense pedigree and money wise and the results aren’t reflective of that so you can’t say it’s because of injury or aging vets over the last few years because we intentionally signed older guys.

The offenses under Cowher weren’t that highly ranked and I’m not surprised but they were complimentary too our defense and style of play which worked in that era. Today that style no longer works. You have to be multi dimensional on offense. Not to mention the offenses were good enough under Cowher as four of those guys went on to be Head Coahces elsewhere.

 

If second half rankings match first half rankings it's going to be UGLY.

 

Sometimes our offense wasn't good under Cowher, like in 1998 for example, but other times they were better than the stats indicated because when they had a lead, the Steelers offense played Cowherball in the second half.Like in 2004 and 2005, the Steelers were 10th in 2004 and 4th in 2005 in points per game in the first half, and when they had a good lead, it was almost always run plays.

And to his credit, when our defense wasn't good enough, like in 1995 (because they lost Woodson) and in 2002 (the worst Steelers defense under Cowher), they opened things up more on offense.

I prefer a Cowherball-style offense to the dink-and-dunk offense we've had for the most part since 2019, even during in the current era!

 

23 out of 32?

What's extra sad is how much this defense cost us.

 

Who would you say is the closest to that style of offense today? What coach reminds you of him? I agree with you a dominant run game is the best. The only detriment to it is if you get behind by two tds in a game that’s why it was great when we got Ben because he was capable of coming back through the air if we needed it. Campbell and Vrabel and those two teams remind of those Cowher teams.

 

True for Campbell and Vrabel and I would also said the eagles offense of last season when they were first in rushing attempts and last in passing attempts but they could beat you with the deep ball like the 2004 and 2005 team!

The titans in the good years of Vrabel is also a good comparaison....The difference,the steelers had better defense in the Cowher era but on offense,it was similar!

 

‘yes I forgot about the Eagles last year and the Titans. Do you know what all those teams blocking schemes were including the Cowher Steelers? I’m not a big fan of the wide zone scheme at least not for the Steelers. I just don’t think we’re good at blocking it. Way too many ilb’s running free that we can’t seem to get too.

 

No,I can't said that for sure

 

Exactly

Points are the stat that counts

 

yes exactly.

point made

 

Points made

 

And a damn fine job you did

 

They are based on yards. If you go by points Cowhers teams over his tenure had a rank average of 13th for offense and `6th for defense but there were two down years on defense that skewed the metric lower. Tomlins teams were ranked 10th on offense and 9th on defense. But you can’t go by points either because Cowhers teams let off the gas after they were up by more than 10 and milked the clock. At the end of the day it’s what have you done for me lately and whe. You look at Tomlins last five years for points scored and points allowed we are near the bottom for both. I liked a Tomlin when he had good coordinators but that hasn’t been the case for awhile.

 

Based on a two year sample check it appears to be points

 

Good point.

 

I was going to give this a like but I don’t know what the hell it is