Johnny's Week 9 Offensive Steelers Stat Sheet: Batman Consoles a Crying Robin

Here we are with the second installment of the weekly stat sheet.  This time we will be taking a good look at the Steelers offense in the Dolphins game and so far this season.  I cannot really change the stat of the week, because there cannot be two stats of the week. Can there?  Maybe I should do one offense stat of the week and one defense stat of the week.  Let me know what you think.

Stat of the week: It's been said a million times, but it is worth repeating.  The Steelers defense is the first defense in the history of the NFL to hold each of its first 8 opponents under 75 rushing yards.  You cannot run through a steel curtain

Offense

Week 9 Ranks

Category	Stat	Week 9 Rank	Week 7 Rank	Trend
Points Per Game	21.8	16th	14th
Total Yards Per Game	299.6	28th	26th
Yards Per Play	5.4	T-11th	12th
Time of Possession	30:23	16th	14th
3rd Down Completion %	35	25th	28th
Rush Yards Per Game	117.8	12th	11th
Rush Yards Per Attempt	4.0	T-17th	T-20th
Rush TDs	10	T-10th	T-12th
Pass Yards Per Game	181.9	27th	26th
Yards Per Pass Attempt	8.2	2nd	2nd	--
Passing TDs	10	T-21st	T-22nd
Sacks Allowed	16	T-14th	T-10th
QB Rating	91.1	10th	5th
Point Differential	+51	5th	3rd

It's kind of funny, because our defensive stats have been so steady over the last few weeks, but our offense is in constant turbulence.  Ben really jump-started the offense when he got back, but he has looked just "okay" in the last few weeks.  Our defense really won us that game, when you consider our offense did not really put up any jaw dropping numbers.  Although, the OL opening holes and Mendenhall running hard on the last drive helped the defense catch a breather.  If we could just pick up our passing numbers and get more manageable 3rd downs, I think we would easily be the best team in the league.

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3rd Downs Conversions

The Steelers went 6 for 14 on Monday (42.9%) which was just one conversion under .500.  The third downs went as follows: 3p, 12p, 5p, 6p, 9p, 2p, 8p-TD, 10p, 11p-s, 2r, 10p, 1r, 5p, 6r (p=designed pass, r=run, s=sack, bold=converted, italic=turnover).  The second to last 3rd down there was the Roethlisberger scramble for 12 yards.  I marked it as a pass because the play was designed as a pass.  That means we only ran it on 3 of our 14 3rd downs.  That does not say much though, because the majority of the 3rd downs were longer than 4 yards.  The Steelers seem to have a pattern of mishandling 1st and 2nd down this year, which leaves them with unmanageable yardage on 3rd down.  Next week I will take a deeper look at 3rd downs.

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Quick Slants

• Hines Ward HoF Watch: Ward sits at 11th all time in receptions with 925, he needs 15 more to reach Art Monk to break into the top 10.  He has 11,322 career receiving yards, which is 24th all time.  He needs 52 yards to pass Keenan McCardell and 68 to passRod Smith.  Lastly, he has 82 career touchdowns, just 2 behind 15th (4 players) and 3 behind 12th (3 players) with only one active player in those 7, Tony Gonzalez.
• Chicks Dig the Long Deep Ball: Mike Wallace is leading the league with 23 yards per reception on his 22 catches.  He is the first player since 1985 to average above 19 yards per reception in the first two seasons of their career.  He is currently sitting at 23rd in the league in yardage (503), but if he can be a complete receiver like we saw on Monday, he could shoot up the list.  Interestingly, in 13 of Wallace's 23 career games he has had over a 20 yard per reception average.
  
• Check out my new LT: With Max Starks going on IR, Jonathan Scott is going to be starting at LT and I am very afaid.  Against the Bengals, a bad pass rush team, he gave up 3 pressures on 20 passing blocking plays he was in for.  That is a good 15% of the time he was giving up pressure, which is awful.  Most of those came to a guy named Frostee Rucker, who prior to Monday, had 7 total QB pressures in 7 games.
• But he can Run Block!: The Steelers had their biggest success running to the left side of the line.  To the LE they averaged 3.8 (5/19), to the LT 7.7 (3/23), and 9.7 to the LG (3/29).
• Numbers that Do Not Make Sense: I was curious to see how the Steelers did in games where Ward had less than 20 yards of receiving since 2004 (when Ben was drafted).  I expected a crappy record, but they are actually 10-3 in those situations.  However, 2 of those losses came this year.
• Another Odd One: So our scoring margin is +51 this year?  And we give up a lot of points in the 4th?  Well our scoring margin through 3 quarters this year is +54.  Through the first half it is +47 and through one quarter it is just +19.  Also, we only have 2 games where we have a negative scoring margin in the 4th quarter and that was the Saints game and this Monday's game against the Bengals.