Now that we’ve had some time to fully digest the Pittsburgh Steelers loss to the Cleveland Browns let’s dig into four interesting numbers from the game to think about as the team gets ready to start preparing for next week’s game against the New York Jets.
6.7 yards per attempt
At halftime Mitch Trubisky was averaging a very good 8.4 yards per attempt. He was taking shots downfield and seemed to be playing with confidence. Then everything fell apart in the second half and Trubisky ended up averaging 6.7 yards per attempt. This is among the worst in the NFL and has to be an area of emphasis going foward.
171 rushing yards
It is crazy to think no team has allowed more rushing yards per game over the last two seasons than the Steelers. 171 more rushing yards on Thursday and there is no fix on the horizon.
0 turnovers
When the Steelers know they aren’t going to score stacks of points, the defense must do better in creating turnovers. Pittsburgh’s defense showed no sense of urgency in forcing turnovers, even once the Browns had fully committed to the run.
72 defensive snaps
One underrated thing to track this season is the sheer volume of defensive snaps the Steelers are being forced to play. Pittsburgh played 72 defensive snaps not accounting for any plays that didn’t count due to penalties. The Steelers defense isn’t deep enough to continue to average 80 plays per game.
