Interesting Passing Stats

[Mojouw]

http://www.steelersdepot.com/2014/11/contrary-popular-belief-steelers-throwing-deep-quite-bit-season/

Fairly interesting set of #'s.

So they are still chucking it deep (or at least over 15 yards) with the best of them.

[Psycho Ward 86]

"19.4% of all steeler pass attempts have been deep passes this season and that ranks them right around the middle of the league."

That tells me more than any of the other stats. Yeah, of course you're going to be ranked far in completed deep passes if you attempt a ton of passes. But how many of them are going deep? 2nd highest rated deep passer in the league, we need to be throwing deep a higher PERCENTAGE of the time, not necessarily more often. In games like against the titans where the pass rush is relentless, yeah sure we should dial down the deep balls, but otherwise we need to be playing to our strengths

And why oh why did we use play action so little in that game....

[Mojouw]

"19.4% of all steeler pass attempts have been deep passes this season and that ranks them right around the middle of the league."

That tells me more than any of the other stats. Yeah, of course you're going to be ranked far in completed deep passes if you attempt a ton of passes. But how many of them are going deep? 2nd highest rated deep passer in the league, we need to be throwing deep a higher PERCENTAGE of the time, not necessarily more often. In games like against the titans where the pass rush is relentless, yeah sure we should dial down the deep balls, but otherwise we need to be playing to our strengths

And why oh why did we use play action so little in that game....

Earlier in the article, it states that the Steelers have the "4th most [15+ yards] attempts in the league". Seems like the article switches definitions w/out telling us somewhere. Not sure how it goes from 4th most to middle of the league. Even with byes, that is a drop of a dozen spots.

Looking at the table, I think I see what is happening. Only 5 teams in the league have over 400 pass attempts (Steelers, Indy, Philly, and New Orleans). Of those 5, only one passes deep more than Pittsburgh (Philly at 22.7%) and one is on par with Pittsburgh (Indy @ 19.5%). Teams that pass it @ a higher "rate" than Steelers have between 30 and 90 (round #'s) less passing attempts overall.

I think the chart holds up the idea that the Steelers are going deep at a pretty high rate. I was surprised to see that.

Also shows that despite the emergence of Bell, this is still a heavy pass offense.