Steelers lack TD of more than 8 yards this season; every other team has one of at least 23
The Pittsburgh Steelers are having trouble scoring points, which intuitively implies they are having trouble scoring touchdowns. But what might lack most is long touchdowns.
The data, indeed, suggests long touchdowns are lacking at a level not seen in decades.
SharpFootballAnalysis.com compiled a list of the longest offensive touchdowns scored by each NFL team this season. Twenty-two of the 32 teams have a TD of at least 51 yards. Thirty-one of the 32 teams have a TD of at least 23 yards.
The one that doesn’t? The Steelers, whose longest touchdown on offense this season was an 8-yard pass from Mitch Trubisky to Pat Freiermuth during the fourth quarter of the Week 2 loss to the New England Patriots.
“Obviously, it is what it is,” offensive coordinator Matt Canada said before practice Thursday. “We’ve had a week off, we are ready to get going the second half of the year and we have nine games to go, and there’s a lot of things we want to do better.”
The Steelers’ other offensive touchdowns this season have been from 7, 6, 6, 5, 2, 1, 1, 1 and 1 yard(s). (The team’s first touchdown of the season was a 31-yard play, but it was on defense: a Minkah Fitzpatrick interception return).
According to Sharp Football Analysis, no team this century has reached Week 9 of a season without an offensive touchdown of at least 15 yards.
The lack of long touchdowns, as would be expected, coincides with a lack of big, so-called “explosive” plays overall. The Steelers have four passing gains of more than 30 yards all season and none in the 16 quarters rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett has played.
The Steelers do not have any rushes of 20 or more yards this season.
“We’ve got to minimize some mistakes and execute at a higher level at those key times for those plays to occur,” Canada said. “The players have sat in there and looked at it, the plays that are there, the opportunities to make them are a little bit off here and there, and we can talk about the rookie quarterback or reps in camp … but nobody cares. So we have to find a way to score more points.”
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Chris Adamski is a TribLive reporter who has covered primarily the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2014 following two seasons on the Penn State football beat. A Western Pennsylvania native, he joined the Trib in 2012 after spending a decade covering Pittsburgh sports for other outlets. He can be reached at cadamski@triblive.com.
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