The adage is as true as it is obvious. Protect the football, win the game. In the NFL’s razor-thin margins, one bounce of the football can make the difference. But for some teams, avoiding turnovers is more important to victory than others. The Pittsburgh Steelers sure feel like an example of that. When they play clean, they win. When they don’t, they lose.
It’s influenced Mike Tomlin’s approach, an offense focused on not losing the game instead of winning it. A mindset likely to remain until the team finds its next franchise quarterback.
Putting the data to the test, I’ve looked at the past three seasons, Pittsburgh’s post-Ben Roethlisberger era, to chart team’ winning percentage in games where they didn’t turn the ball over at all versus games in which they turned it over at least once.