For the past several seasons, the Pittsburgh Steelers have managed to maintain a winning record while having the advanced stats of a bottom-feeding team. Recently, the Steelers have not been the darlings of the analytics community. Of course, Pittsburgh has crashed and burned hard in recent years because, eventually, they were no longer able to sustain the unsustainable.
So far in 2024, the Steelers trend of overperforming their advanced stats has been reversing. They are a 5-2 team on the lower end of the “potential contenders” category of teams, and their statistics back up that classification. Following a dominant Week 7 win over the New York Jets, several Steelers advanced stats are trending in the right direction, a great sign as the season progresses.
Steelers Advanced Stats Trending in Right Direction Into Week 8
Strong Performance in the Trenches
On brand for the Steelers, they have done a good job up front on both sides of the ball this season. Offensively, their pass protection hasn’t been great, but their run blocking has come together nicely. Considering they are currently starting just two of their five planned starters for the season, the offensive line play has been a huge pleasant surprise.
Rookie sensation Zach Frazier missed Week 7 and will also miss Week 8, but Ryan McCollum has been a quality replacement at center. Frazier’s fellow rookie Mason McCormick has been great filling in for James Daniels, who is out for the season, at right guard. When Frazier returns, Pittsburgh’s offensive line could develop into a top-10 unit by the end of the season.
All trench measures from ESPN and PFF
Poor Patriots OL pic.twitter.com/QrzxksXQvB
— Computer Cowboy (@benbbaldwin) October 22, 2024
On the other side of the ball, it is no surprise seeing the Steelers defensive line rated so highly. They are an elite unit against the pass and the run. Like their offensive counterparts, the Steelers defensive front has been missing key players. Alex Highsmith returned in Week 7 after missing two games, while his standout backup, Nick Herbig, has missed two games with no return in sight. Still, Cameron Heyward, T.J. Watt, and Keeanu Benton are good enough to make this a great defensive front, while other key players miss time.
Offense Finds Some Life in Week 7
Of all the Steelers advanced stats, their offense’s explosive play rate is an important one to watch. It’s hard to sustain long, drawn-out drives in the NFL. It might sound obvious, but consistently generating chunk plays is the easiest way for an offense to find sustained success. From an explosive play perspective, Pittsburgh’s Week 7 performance was their best showing in almost a decade.
The Steelers had five plays of 30+ yards last night against the Jets. Four passes, one rush.
It's the first they've had five such plays in a game since 2015 against the 49ers.
Stats of the weird. #Steelers https://t.co/1HD5i1d0HK
— Alex Kozora (@Alex_Kozora) October 21, 2024
In just one game, the Steelers were able to increase their explosive play rate from 8.7% to 9.4%. That is a large jump in one week. While Pittsburgh’s offense will certainly come back down to earth, it’s good to finally see them rip off some big plays. With their next two games coming against the New York Giants and Washington Commanders, two teams with weak defenses, the Steelers are hopeful to continue their improvement in generating splash plays.
Strong Point Differential
It may be the least advanced of the advanced stats, but point differential is typically a fairly predictive measure of a team’s strength. In previous years when Pittsburgh consistently outperformed their stats, their weak point differential was always a sign that they weren’t as good of a team as their record showed. This year that has not been the case through seven games.
Point differential per game.
The Commanders are No. 1 in overall point differential but have played one more game than DET & MIN.
The…Steelers?? pic.twitter.com/AQuy2jjZl4
— Computer Cowboy (@benbbaldwin) October 22, 2024
The Steelers have the fifth-best point differential per game in the NFL through Week 7. On one hand, most of their point differential comes from dominant wins over a horrible Las Vegas Raiders team and a Jets team that hasn’t been able to find their footing. But on the other hand, good teams are supposed to comfortably defeat bad teams. In years past, Pittsburgh would barely scrape by bad teams or lose to them outright.
There’s still plenty of games to play, and Pittsburgh’s schedule gets much more difficult in the second half of the season. So far, though, the Steelers advanced stats say they might not be the pretenders they have been in recent history.
Main Image: Barry Reeger – USA Today Sports
