1. Tough schedule

The Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense ranks fourth worst in the NFL in yards gained and third worst in points scored. But is part of that poor output the result of whom they are facing?

According to footballoutsiders.com, the Steelers this season have faced the toughest schedule of defenses of any team through six weeks. According to Football Outsiders’ “Value Over Average” (DVOA) all-encompassing metric, five of the Steelers’ six opponents this season ranked among the league’s top 12 defenses: the Buffalo Bills are No. 1, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers No. 4, the New England Patriots the seventh-best, Cincinnati Bengals eighth-best and New York Jets No. 12.

The Steelers offense, incidentally, ranks 24th in DVOA: 20th in passing and 31st in rushing.

Using other measures supports Football Outsiders’ contention about the collective defensive strength of the Steelers’ six opponents. Pro Football Focus grades place three in the NFL’s top seven and four in the top 14. The raw statistics likewise have the Bills, Bucs, Jets, Patriots and Bengals in the top half of the league in scoring and yards allowed.

Incidentally, the numbers say the lone poor defense the Steelers have faced is the Cleveland Browns, who rank second-to-last in DVOA, third-to-last in points, fourth-to-last in PFF grades and seventh-to-last in yards allowed. The Steelers scored 17 points in their Sept. 22 meeting with them.

— Tribune-ReviewSports (@TribSports) September 25, 2022

2. Bottom of the pack

ESPN calculates “win rates” for individual players and teams, and for pass-rushing and run-stopping each. And this season, based on ESPN’s data, the Steelers defense isn’t winning at a very high rate.

The Steelers rank 28th (or, put differently, fifth-to-last) in the NFL in pass-rush win rate and run-stop win rate. They are the only defense in the league to be among the bottom five in both categories. In fact, no other team even rates among the bottom nine in both. The New York Giants come closest at 22nd in pass-rush win rate and last in run-stop win rate.

3. Lacking YAC

NFL’s Next Gen Stats provides a nugget about former Steelers receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster’s Week 6 effort in which he had five catches and a touchdown for the Kansas City Chiefs: 82 of Smith-Schuster’s 113 receiving yards were gained after the catch.

Smith-Schuster had more yards after the catch (YAC) in that game than Steelers wide receivers Diontae Johnson and George Pickens have combined for during the season.

Next Gen Stats’ data says Johnson has 26 YAC and Pickens 46 YAC in 2022 (72 combined) after their catch totals of 33 and 20, respectively.

The Steelers’ other primary wide receiver, Chase Claypool, has 69 yards after his 23 catches. The Steelers’ YAC leader, in aggregate and on a per-catch basis, is a tight end: Pat Freiermuth has 92 YAC on his 20 receptions.

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— NFL (@NFL) October 16, 2022

4. Fast impact

It didn’t take long for Steven Sims to make an impact on the Steelers’ return game or Next Gen Stats’ superlatives.

Sims’ 89-yard kickoff return to open the second half against the Bucs was the seventh-longest play in the NFL this season, measured by distance traveled. Sims ran an actual distance of 101.9 yards during the play.

Sims also reached 20.84 mph while making the return. That’s the 18th fastest any player had run with the ball this season.

Incidentally, if Sims was running faster than all but three players in the league during Week 6 while carrying the ball, how fast was Tampa Bay’s Jamel Dean running if he caught him from 10 yards behind?

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