Steelers Four Downs: More motion on offense, fast pressure on defense, lots of wins at home

1. Loco-motion

Be it the influence of new quarterbacks coach Matt Canada, a Giants-specific gameplan or a sign of what’s to come, the Pittsburgh Steelers offense used much more motion at the snap in their opener than last season.

According to ESPN, only four of the NFL’s other 31 teams used motion at the snap more than the Steelers did in Week 1. The Steelers had motion at the snap 25.4% of the time during the 26-16 win at New York on Monday. Last season, the Steelers were a middle-of-the-pack motion team, deploying it less than 10% of the time at the snap.

Canada was a longtime college coordinator — including a season at Pitt — who staked his reputation, in part, by usage of motion principles. Motion has been used more in college and increasingly so at the pro level in recent years. According to Sharp Football Analytics, pre-snap motion usage leaguewide climbed from 33% of offensive plays in 2017 to 39% in 2018 to 43% last season. The Steelers in Week 1 utilized pre-snap motion on 48.4% of snaps, 12th-most among all teams.

According to ESPN Sports Analytics, use of motion is beneficial to an offense, particularly motion at the snap. It adds 0.08 expected points per passing play and 0.11 expected points per running play. Out of context, that might not sound significant, but quantitatively, it’s huge. Expected points added per play is a statistic that measures the value of individual plays in terms of points.

2. Getting there quick

Poor Daniel Jones. Though the Giants’ young quarterback likely will continue to be under siege all season because of a suspect offensive line, credit also goes to the Steelers’ pass rush for making life so hard on him in Week 1.

Pro Football Focus observed the Steelers pressured Jones on 54% of his dropbacks Monday (26 of 48), by far the most of any quarterback in the league last weekend. Though they managed “only” three sacks, the Steelers also hit and hurried Jones into throwaways or scrambles. They got to him within 2½ seconds 22 times. No other team in the league managed as many as 14 pass rushes that quick.

Blitzing inside linebacker Vince Williams had the fastest sack in Week 1. According to NFL Next Gen Stats, he sacked Jones 2.26 seconds after the snap.

3. Improbable Chase

Antonio Brown was a healthy scratch for his first NFL game. JuJu Smith-Schuster wasn’t targeted during his NFL debut. So to say Chase Claypool would be rated by PFF as second best among 121 NFL receivers targeted during the opening weekend? That would be improbable.

Almost as improbable as Claypool’s first career catch. The Steelers’ second-round pick who wowed during training camp was thrown a pro pass for the first time late in the first quarter Monday. Ben Roethlisberger threw to him along the right sideline, finding a window with the out-of-bounds line and two New York defenders boxing Claypool in. The 6-foot-4, 238-pound Claypool made the catch while somehow getting both feet down, dragging his right toe as he fell out of bounds for a 28-yard gain.

Next Gen Stats determined the pass had a completion probability of 13.8%: the lowest of any completed pass in the NFL last weekend.

Claypool, who had an 11-yard reception on his only other target, had a 90.2 PFF subjective rating that trailed only Minnesota’s Adam Thielen among all NFL wide receivers in Week 1.

4. Home sweet

With the Steelers’ home opener Sunday, it offers another opportunity to marvel at the remarkable five-decade run the franchise has had at home. Since Three Rivers Stadium opened in 1970, the Steelers have posted just one losing home season.

The Steelers haven’t even had so much as a .500 (non-losing) season of games at home (4-4) since 2003. That is one of six .500 home records over the past 50 seasons. The tally otherwise? Forty-three winning home seasons and one losing home season. Incredible.

At Heinz Field, the Steelers have had 18 winning home seasons, one .500 home season and zero losing home seasons. They closed Three Rivers Stadium with 25 winning home seasons, five .500 home seasons and just the poor 1999 season (2-6) with a losing record among home games.