A hot topic we’ve been emphasizing at Steelers Depot is an issue with negative plays killing the Pittsburgh Steelers offense. Today, I wanted to look at and provide some more data context to these struggles that will hopefully improve moving forward. While I’m at it, I’ll include numbers for the defense as well.
First, let’s look at total negative plays (<= 0 yards) on all pass and run plays for NFL offenses, with no plays, spikes, and kneels removed:
Right away we see Pittsburgh ranks dead last in total negative play rate, at a whopping 44.1 percent.