Team stats

Surprisingly the Steelers D is ranked 2 overall. 2nd in pass and 9th in the run. The offense is ranked 11 overall. 6th in the pass and 26th in the run. And for this team to be sitting at 3-3 is shocking. Just my .02 for a monday lol

 

That is because the formula (yards allowed per game) is flawed. Teams can give up 600 yards as long as most of them are between the 20s. The Steelers are #12 in points allowed per game.

 

How is our ST ranked. Or are they just rank, period.

 

Completely false! Overall yards allowed per game is what it is based on. Steelers give up an avg of 277.3 yds per game 2nd to only the 49ers who give up 272.3!

Steelers give up only 184.8 passing yds per game 2nd to only the 49ers as well!

We are ranked #9 in rushing with 92.5 and are #10 not #12 in points allowed with 22 pts a game! Stats dont lie!

This D is not the problem with this team, its the offensive fluttering and inconsitency, penalties and not being able to execute when needed (meaning score TDs)! Yes the D has had a hard time stopping teams in the 4th qtr, but the offense has had multiple chances in each loss to score and close the games out (you win by scoring) and choked and had to give the ball back to the opponent! Of course the D will get tired! Time for the offense to take over, man the ship and start scoring... So sick of hearing about how bad this D is and how "THEY" have lost the games, they have done great considering the injuries to key players!

Sorry for the rant, I just don't see how a majority of fans don't see that the offense has sucked more so than the defense. OPEN EYES PEOPLE!!

With all that being said, on too the Skins and RGIII! You know he will get his (he has done it to every team he has faced) so like I mentioned above we need to execute and score on every offensive opportunity we get and score more points than them. Simple formula, score, score and score some more!!

HERE WE GO STEELERS HERE WE GO!!!

 

the defenses problem is they cant get off the field on 3rd down. they are second worst in the league and tied for worst on getting of the field on 4th down when a teams goes for it.

the defenses also gives up late points. the Steelers always seem to be in tight games and in years past the defense could hold that lead, but now they always seem to give up those late scoring drives. the bend but dont break saying doenst apply anymore.

 

Comlpetely false? I said the defense is ranked base on yards allowed per game whish is exactly what you said. Yards don't win games, points do. If you hold a team to a bunch of FGs instead of TDs (sound familiar?), you are going to win more than lose.

 

Both stats have meaning, and both stats have flaws. Did our defense really give up 35 points to Baltimore last year in the opening game? I guess so, but I think the offense's 7 turnovers had something to do with it. Nevertheless, the talk after that game wasn't about our horrendous offense, it was about our "old and slow" defense. How about the 17 we gave up to Cincy on Sunday? 7 of those came when the Bengals started on our 8 yard line after Ben's fumble. I remember people complaining about how or defense played against the Colts last year (some of those complaints not so long ago), when we narrowly escaped with a 23-20 win. After all, 20 points against the pitiful Colts? Well, 7 of them came from the Colts' defense, and 6 more were field goals set up directly by turnovers. That's 13 points right there, entirely the fault of the Steelers offense! After two of those turnovers, the defense did its job and held Indy to field goals. On the other, they didn't even get to set foot on the field because Indy's D scored itself. So yeah, they did allow one touchdown drive by Curtis Painter in the 4th quarter. And what does this message board have to say about it? "Those stats that say we were the best defense are meaningless! They almost lost to the Colts! They couldn't even stop Curtis Painter from scoring! We're terrible! The stats are flawed!" Our defense allowed 7 points in a whole game, and it's their fault we almost lost? They weren't good enough? You really think that holding a team -- even a bad team with a bad QB -- to 7 points is unsatisfactory? I'd call it underappreciated.

Oh, by the way, our defense scored 7 points for our team that night, which is the only reason we even had a chance to win that game. So if you're keeping track, that's 7 points scored, 7 points allowed. Pretty even. And we won by 3. Against a team that won 2 games that year. Are we complaining about the right side of the ball?

I'm not a big stats guy. They can be indicators, they can be impressive, they can be B.S. The important thing is to look at them and see what they mean. Consider everything and apply them to the games. Yeah, points are what really matters, so giving up 600 yards in a game is fine if you only allow field goals. Now show me a team that gives up 600 yards and only allows field goals. If you can't get yards on a defense, then you're going to have to find some other way to score. Like by playing good defense yourself and either getting turnovers so you don't have to go so many yards to score, or stifling the offense so you consistently get good field position, and don't have to go so many yards to score. In either scenario, your defense is getting put in a tough spot and a lot is being asked of it. And all of that is really, really, really hard to do. Anyway. Winning a game with just your defense because your offense can't gain yards? You have to either be playing a terrible offense and have a great defense, or be playing in a hurricaine or something. If you stop teams from getting yards, you are playing well. We allowed 241 yards against the Colts that night (a pretty low number) and that is a much more telling statistic than the score.

 

I agree that the defense is NOT the problem with this team - until they get to the 4th quarter. When the team has a lead in the 4th (as much as 10 points), and the defense cannot hold the opposing offense - there's something wrong. You can't play like All-Pros for 3 quarters and then depend on the offense to grind the clock for 15 minutes of football.

I also agree that the offense has not been given enough credit for the less-than-stellar start this year. Failure to take advantage of opportunities has kept teams in games way too long this year. Whether it's a turnover at the wrong time, a dropped pass, or a stalled drive in the red zone, the offense needs to put up bigger numbers earlier in games. Ben & Co. can put up lots of yards. They've shown us that, but they aren't putting teams away. It seems as if, once the Steelers get to the 4th quarter, both the offense and defense seem to be relying on each other to finish it off. It has to be a team effort - and neither side of the ball is doing their jobs.

That being said - we're 3-3, with the opportunity to pull within one game of the Ravens in the division on Sunday. That puts us in the driver's seat for the division title, assuming we match the Ratbirds win-for-win and loss-for-loss - except for the two games we play against them. If we can pull out two wins against the Rats, and it IS possible given their depleted defense and anemic offense, a division title is certainly there for the taking. It's time to start climbing that hill toward peaking - using BOTH the offense AND the defense to put teams away.

 

biggest problems are two , we don't put pressure and we have problem stopping the run , two the best things we were doing from years

 

At the beginning of this season, I thought we had the best team in football, partially due to a stellar draft class. Then we lost DD, Spence, T'amu from the draft class. Our starters (JH, Troy, Markice, etc...) are also seriously depleted.

Even if we get healthy (and BB stays healthy,) I don't feel the same confidence. We need a fierce pass rush and to stop the run from now on!

 

How does a defense give up three 4th quarter leads of 7+ points and people say the D is not the problem? Winning teams must fire on all cylinders - O, D, & ST. Yes, the O sputtered in those games, but you tell me how many times during the Cowher era his teams had a 10 point lead and didn't win (trivia alert, I'm pretty sure I know the answer, but don't know where to go to verify). Having said that, this is not a FMTI response at all. I hated those topics. I'm behind our coach. I'm just making a point. I'd venture to say it is the players (injuries, etc) versus the coaching. But who knows.

 

It would be interesting to see these stats with penalty yards integrated. You know, like 40 yard pass interference penalties, 15 yard personal fouls etc...

 

I agree with rush..The Cowher era you were just hoping the D would be on the field to seal the victory ,,now its more like hoping the offense can once again come from behind ..The D used to know how to put its foot on their opponents neck and get the tap out..Not so much now ,,very rarely do we see the victory formation from the offense anymore...Pretty sure the O's 3rd down conversions are tops in the league too,,the D's though,,,ugh!

 

First, the defenses of the Cowher era are quickly being put away due to ever-changing rules that favor offenses.

I agree with Snacks post. People complained about the D because we played the Colts close last year. The D had a very good showing by only really allowing one TD, but the cancelled it out by scoring.

Special teams TDs and fumble returns/Int returns also fo against the D, yet they were not on the field to "give up" those points. remember the game against the Raiders a couple years ago when out D held them to less than 100 yards total, yet we lost! (Raiders had a total of 98 yards and we lost 20-13 due to 2 pick-6s).

People always remember that we had a lead in the 4th and gave it up. In today's NFL with the rules favoring offense, you win by continuing to score, not going 3 and out 3 times in the 4th qtr and expecting the defense to hold -- those days are over. The new NFL rules favor the offense too much, thus our offense needs to score/keep the ball to win game. It is hard for Steeler fans to acknowledge, but that is the modern NFL.

 

Especially the part about agreeing with me!

One of the most dominant defensive performances I ever saw in my life -- by anybody -- was our defense in a game we lost 21-6, against the David Carr Texans. I think they had something like 2 first downs and 30 yards of offense.

It's like you said: people remember the dramatics. They think "when it counts" is what matters, and then they act like the first three quarters don't count. Someone said you can't play like an all-pro defense for 3 quarters and then fall apart in the 4th. Uh, SURE YOU CAN! If your defense is completely dominating three quarters of the game, you have a good defense, and you need to win. If you don't, then take a nice hard look at your offense and special teams. Playing dominant ball for most of the game and still being catchable late means you have problems elsewhere. Likewise, I don't understand how a defense can play terribly for most of a game, allow 30 or 40 points in a back and forth shootout, then get a stop on the final drive and everybody acts like they did a great job. It's like people who think Adam Vinetieri is the greatest kicker of all time, or that Terrell Owens somehow won that playoff game for the 49ers against the Packers years ago. I'm not saying being clutch is overrated, I'm saying being clutch includes the first three and a half quarters. If Vinetieri doesn't miss two field goals early, his team is better off, the whole game changes and they might not even need him late. If T.O. doesn't drop a kajillion passes throughout that game, they aren't behind at the end and don't need a touchdown at all. And don't get me started on why it's considered a good catch when a receiver bobbles a ball before reeling it in (see Greg Little's "incredible" touchdown catch here http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/...wn-juggling-catch-browns-colts_n_1997854.html). He times his jump horribly, then misses with his hands, gets a lucky bounce, and manages not to drop it a second time. Yeah, good job staying in bounds. If you'd done your job right it would have looked clean and boring and wouldn't have been close at all, like all the best catches.

 

You hit the nail on the head my friend! Goodell has changed the way the game is played (in favor of the offense). How can you expect the D to hold for 3 or 4 drives when our offense can't score anymore points in the end. Law of averages says they are going to be able to score with that many chances, but our offense has the same amount of posessions and does squat. Offense has to keep scoring in todays NFL to win, plain and simple!

Think about it this way, if our offense scores 1 more time in the Den. and Tenn. game we win, and yes they had several tries in both but failed! See the logic! The D is also tired in the 4th and more vunerable especially after a couple of 3 and outs by the offense!

Simple, score the points we are suppose to and not blow our opportunities and the D won't have to hold at the end of every game.

I guess most people see it differently and probably because we as Steeler fans have been spoiled by a great defenses over the years!

Regardless, we are the Steelers and I will bleed Black and Gold for life! Time to have a pig roast on Sunday, lets get em boys....

 

While I get what you are saying, how can you say the D was tired in Denver? They were on the field for like 10 minutes the whole game.

 

The stat that I like the most is #1 on on offense with 3rd down conversions. It shows the difference between Haleys more balanced offense and that of BA's chuck it down the field 40 yards when the bubble screen doesn't produce.

 

I meant the Oakland game, my bad! But you could clearly see the D was gassed in Denver also, 1st game of the season at that altitude, especially with Manning running the hurry up (no substitutions for our D), yes they were very tired you could see the pain on their faces.

And actually the D was on the field for 25 minutes! Denvers D was on for 35 minutes but they are use to the altitude, so yeah Denver had a clear advantage in that one for the reasons mentioned above!

Bens pick six was a 14 point swing so being the score was 30-19, if we scored a TD on that drive and no pick six guess what...we win, nuff said!

 

The numbers are skewed due to the Steelers time of possession advantage. It is hard to give up points if you never give the ball to the other team. Yet, this team somehow has managed.

There are better indicators:

1. Points allowed overall
2. TDs allowed versus FGs
3. Points allowed per possession

 

Overall, this has been the problem for several seasons, now. The offense goes flat way too much. All the field goals are killing the team. Quit turning the ball over. Tighten up in the red zone. Get in the end zone.

If the offense would score TDs in the first half, when the defense is often stifling opposing offenses, then it changes the complexity of the game. A team coming from behind will take more chances, and play right into Dick LeBeau's hands. This is a concert, people. And the offense needs to step up to first chair.

 

It has been going on for awhile now, remember how we blamed the offense for scoring too quick and not letting the D rest, well the offense is at the top of the league in TOP yet the defense stiff is giving up 4 qtr points like they are free. I know the offense has a lot of blame but don't give me anything like letting the raiders come back from being 10 points down in the 4th and win. Ok, the offense had a shot and they didn't get it done but the defense allowed the Raiders who were a joke on the offensive side of the ball, score on every single 2nd half possession, every single possession resulted in points, that is bad defense and there is no way to cover that up when the offense puts up 31 points. The Titans, yeah the offense faild but Hassleback looked great and C. Johnson who was averaging less than 3 yards per carry ran for close to 100 and again, a single stop in the 4th means we win but it doesn't happen, Joe Flacco is a mediocre QB that went 90 yards on the D in 32 seconds, I don't care how bad the D is, that only should happen on a blown coverage on a deep pass, no team should be able to complete pass after pass for 15 and 20 yards at a clip and then get outof bounds to stop the clock as they didn't even have a time out but nope, 20 yard cushions resulted in a loss. How about the Broncos, we tied the game up to go to overtime and they couldn't make it past 1 stinking play, the run defense is that bad they had to sell out against the pass and keep 9 guys in the box just to keep Tebow from running all over the D-line. The offense isn't great but giving the D a pass when there are so many times they have got beat isn't going to happen.