The Steelers Are The NFL’s Worst Short Yardage Team (And It’s Not Close)

[Shoes]

I’ll reiterate the title because it’s worth repeating. The Pittsburgh Steelers are the league’s worst short yardage team. That’s not opinion. That’s fact. Numbers based. They don’t lie. And when it comes to this offense, like most aspects of it, things ain’t pretty.
On the season, the Steelers have had 16 plays of 3rd/4th and 1. You would assume most teams are successful there. You’d be right. The Baltimore Ravens, for example, have converted 90% of the time (prior to this weekend) and the league average is 66.7%, two-thirds of the chances. Even teams who rank objectively poor, like the Cleveland Browns (who are 30th) are still at 47%.
The Steelers? Just 25%. Four first downs on 16 attempts. They’re finding themselves in the easiest situations to convert yet failing time and time again.

https://steelersdepot.com/2019/11/th...its-not-close/

[FrancoLambert]

Point fingers at the OL...no push up front.
Throw in no blocking FB.
Add some poorly disguised running plays.
Voila...recipe for failure.

[PalmerSteel]

the line has gotten soft over the years with Ben and pass protection mode vs. run protection mode

[steelreserve]

Nonsense, we're great at picking up short yardage. We just gain it when we're going for long yardage. So obviously we just need to do that. DUH!!!

[Shoes]

Point fingers at the OL...no push up front.
Throw in no blocking FB.
Add some poorly disguised running plays.
Voila...recipe for failure.

It's hard for me to understand how the Oline could regress so much if it is on the oline. I can see a guy like Boz hitting a bump in the road, but I fully expected him to bounce back and he did. But he is one guy, how does the entire Oline start shitting the bed? I can understand Munch's departure having an impact but these guys are vets, not new kids on the block. Strange.

[Mojouw]

This offensive line grouping is built to pass protect. They are decent run blockers overall and above average when they can get out and pull. But not a single one of them is really a straight-up mauler. Gilbert was probably the best traditional run blocker of the group.

I don't find the lack of success in this portion of the offense in any way shocking. Not sure why so many people seem so surprised.

[86WARD]

This has been talked about for weeks. It’s definitely an issue.

O-Line is suspect at best. The backs aren’t explosive. The playbook is very transparent. If I can tell what plays may be coming, I’m almost positive that players and coaches on the other team can tell as well...I think...

[Shoes]

This offensive line grouping is built to pass protect. They are decent run blockers overall and above average when they can get out and pull. But not a single one of them is really a straight-up mauler. Gilbert was probably the best traditional run blocker of the group.

I don't find the lack of success in this portion of the offense in any way shocking. Not sure why so many people seem so surprised.

It would be interesting to see where the Steelers ranked in short yardage over the last 4-5 years. I mean if you have the same players on the oline the running back must matter, no?

[Mojouw]

It would be interesting to see where the Steelers ranked in short yardage over the last 4-5 years. I mean if you have the same players on the oline the running back must matter, no?

I heard RBs don't matter...

FWIW, Football Outsiders has the Steelers 29th in short yardage on 3rd and 4th downs this year, 5th in 2018, 12th in 2017, and 7th in 2016. I got tired of scrolling through after that. https://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/ol/2016

I am not clever enough to know what the cause of the offense struggles are running the ball, but I am kinda hesitant to put it all on the line...

[Shoes]

I heard RBs don't matter...

FWIW, Football Outsiders has the Steelers 29th in short yardage on 3rd and 4th downs this year, 5th in 2018, 12th in 2017, and 7th in 2016. I got tired of scrolling through after that. https://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/ol/2016

I am not clever enough to know what the cause of the offense struggles are running the ball, but I am kinda hesitant to put it all on the line...

I agree

[steel striker]

The o-line is an issue no doubt.

[Fire Goodell]

Surprise of the century

[Steeler-in-west]

Not having Nix doesn’t help. Also a little play action in short yardage may help but they never do that

[steelreserve]

I heard RBs don't matter...

FWIW, Football Outsiders has the Steelers 29th in short yardage on 3rd and 4th downs this year, 5th in 2018, 12th in 2017, and 7th in 2016. I got tired of scrolling through after that. https://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/ol/2016

I am not clever enough to know what the cause of the offense struggles are running the ball, but I am kinda hesitant to put it all on the line...

Besides the OL taking a step back (which there's no doubt it has), I think a big part of our short-yardage problem is that opponents are confident that Mason Rudolph and a second-rate receiving corps are not going to burn them. They don't take shots unexpectedly, and they're too limited to run some neat hot-read play that slices you for 15 yards if you overcommit. Rudolph doesn't make decisions quickly enough to do that; he defaults to dump-offs.

Anyway, the point is that defenses can freely load up to stop the short stuff because they known they're not in any danger of anything worse than short stuff. And then the dump-offs are well guarded too.

In fact, I think a lot of what the Browns did so successfully was to basically play a short-yardage defense for most of the game. Challenge the short throws and see whether Rudolph was just taking those because opponents were giving them away for free - or because that's really all he can do at the pro level. That's why it was such an utter disaster and felt like he got exposed. He did.

[NCSteeler]

16 attempts is a pretty small sample size. Also a reflection of the offense sucking. No time to research but I'd be curious what the league average attempts is at this point

Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk

[Mojouw]

Besides the OL taking a step back (which there's no doubt it has), I think a big part of our short-yardage problem is that opponents are confident that Mason Rudolph and a second-rate receiving corps are not going to burn them. They don't take shots unexpectedly, and they're too limited to run some neat hot-read play that slices you for 15 yards if you overcommit. Rudolph doesn't make decisions quickly enough to do that; he defaults to dump-offs.

Anyway, the point is that defenses can freely load up to stop the short stuff because they known they're not in any danger of anything worse than short stuff. And then the dump-offs are well guarded too.

In fact, I think a lot of what the Browns did so successfully was to basically play a short-yardage defense for most of the game. Challenge the short throws and see whether Rudolph was just taking those because opponents were giving them away for free - or because that's really all he can do at the pro level. That's why it was such an utter disaster and felt like he got exposed. He did.

That all seems like a legit explanation of what is going on. I certainly haven't heard a more succinct and plausible one.

[Steeldude]

Lost Munchak. Pretty much the only coach the Steelers had.

[Butch]

Let's see
1. No Ben since 1/2 way through 2nd game
2 WRs dropping routine passes
3. Rotating RBs every week because they can't stay healthy
4. Not only Munchak gone we lost our WR coach just before the season started
5. Everything Steelreserve mentioned
6. to many injuries to keep track of

I have probably missed a few things but that's about how I feel about it. I don't expect them to make it any better anytime soon.

[Neversatisfied]

Lost Munchak. Pretty much the only coach the Steelers had.

He was by far the best coach this team had

[Rotorhead]

Pretty much what SteeleReserve said, defenses know they can protect the LOS out to 15yds and that is all they have to do. The one successful drive against the Browns involved using an NFL style offense, passing the ball. Also, with Ben, team have to respect the pass, so stacking the box would get them beat with deep shots to AB or Juju last year. The only fix is for us to open up the running game by passing the ball. Unfortunately we have no WRs anymore.

[86WARD]

The O-Line is getting dominated at the LOS both in run and pass. Anywhere from 3-8 men in the box, the line is in the backfield on a regular basis.

[Fire Goodell]

Villanueva this season reminds of Jon "Rollerskates" Scott, yeah almost that bad.

[Edman]

It's not an Offensive Line issue. It's the big problem with the Offense in general. The Offensive system is flawed and broken.

From the day Haley was cut loose and Fichtner was promoted, the Steelers Offense was not built like a functional NFL Offense. There was no function or identity set. It was built for making Ben happy and doing what he wants to do. What does Ben want to do? Sit back in shotgun, gun it 40-50 times a game to many different targets and rack up the yardage. It was an stat-chasing Offense where Ben spread the wealth around to his receivers. The "running game" was draw plays/ short passes to Bell/Conner. That was it. No playaction. No elaborate route patterns. No under center. Nothing to keep the Defense on their toes.

Even last year, the Offense had glaring cracks that were showing. It was extremely one dimensional and was not effective running the football. Either by inability or simply refusing to. In Week 17, against a really poor Bengals team showed ominous signs. The Offense was horrendous without Antonio Brown. Fast forward to 2019 and the problems continued and very magnified. With Ben under center.

The Offense is built not to maximize the talent of the players or accomplish some sort of goal like being better in short yardage or attacking a weakness, just do whatever and get open. They got away with it because Antonio Brown was so good at winning his individual matchups and Defenses had to account for him. Take him out of the equation and the spotlight goes to Juju and the rest of the Steelers receivers, who aren't very good.

To make matters worse, Ben is erased from the picture and replaced with an inferior backup Quarterback who lacks trust in his receivers as well as himself. Mason Rudolph has been up and down, and whenever he's up and trusts his receivers, he's continually let down by receivers with drops/fumbles or the Offensive Line just being garbage. This creates an Offense with no rhythm, chemistry, or trust between the players.

This isn't a mere single player issue. The Offense is a poorly built house built on top of an already crappy foundation.

Say what you will about Todd Haley, At least his Offenses can function on a basic NFL level to where even Landry Jones could do something. Fichtner's Offense doesn't even go beyond Varsity Level.

[st33lersguy]

Not surprise

[Mojouw]

This is a great example of why having no passing game means you also can not run the ball worth snot.

From the article: https://www.behindthesteelcurtain.co...r-james-conner


https://gifs.com/gif/steelers-vs-bro...fl-2019-p8V0p1

I can't embed the GIF or whatever because I am a moron, but still. Click on it and watch it in all its majesty. 9 guys play the run. The safety that Vannett was intended to block never even seriously considered the TE as a pass catcher. In fact all but 2 players on the Cleveland defense were locked onto the RB the way my dog looks at a tennis ball before I throw it.

[86WARD]

The browns had all the skill positions covered though. You can see the LB keying on Vannett there. Vannett should’ve been motioned in more to make the block. There’s no chance he makes the block there because of the safeties speed and angle.

[Mojouw]

The browns had all the skill positions covered though. You can see the LB keying on Vannett there. Vannett should’ve been motioned in more to make the block. There’s no chance he makes the block there because of the safeties speed and angle.

Because the SS NEVER even considered the TE as a pass catcher. Also 3rd and short and the near side CB just bails on the WR? I guess to protect for Max blocking deep shot? It just looks to me (and what do I know)that the Browns never seriously considered that the Steelers would throw it.

Not saying it was a good playcslling or anything. Just that when the other team just seriously shrugs and laughs off your passing game, kinda hard to run against that.

[86WARD]

Because the SS NEVER even considered the TE as a pass catcher. Also 3rd and short and the near side CB just bails on the WR? I guess to protect for Max blocking deep shot? It just looks to me (and what do I know)that the Browns never seriously considered that the Steelers would throw it.

Not saying it was a good playcslling or anything. Just that when the other team just seriously shrugs and laughs off your passing game, kinda hard to run against that.

To me it looks like the SS was blitzing the whole time and the TE wasn’t his assignment. The LB takes a step towards Vannett and hesitates until he sees the ball handed off. Same with the CB up top on McDonald. I’ll agree that they weren’t thinking pass there but it also looks like they were prepared in case it was? But like you said, what do I know? Lol.

[Mojouw]

To me it looks like the SS was blitzing the whole time and the TE wasn’t his assignment. The LB takes a step towards Vannett and hesitates until he sees the ball handed off. Same with the CB up top on McDonald. I’ll agree that they weren’t thinking pass there but it also looks like they were prepared in case it was? But like you said, what do I know? Lol.

Looking again this morning, your are probably right. The image just still struck me that the Browns looked like they either know the play based on film study or just never seriously thought it would be a pass.

So crappy play call or forced into a crappy play call by the QB play; guess it doesn't really matter because same end result. The shortest path to improving the run game is to improve the passing attack.

[steel striker]

Looking again this morning, your are probably right. The image just still struck me that the Browns looked like they either know the play based on film study or just never seriously thought it would be a pass.

So crappy play call or forced into a crappy play call by the QB play; guess it doesn't really matter because same end result. The shortest path to improving the run game is to improve the passing attack.

You guys are right on with this and, it really did look like the Browns knew what was coming and, the offense has to play better starts with the oline.