Got into a minor but annoying little Twitter snit after my story on Pittsburgh ran. The large point of the Pittsburgh piece (I hope) was not that the Steelers run the ball a lot, but that they stand for the same things that they've always stood for, one of these things being a power running game. This seems pretty obvious to me.
But a few people wrote in to rather bluntly deny this. They say that Pittsburgh is now a passing team and has been for more than five years. They say that I completely missed this development. And this would not be surprising ... I miss many developments. But in this case, though my original point was not that Pittsburgh is a running team, I feel pretty sure that I'm right that Pittsburgh is still about running the football.
Start here: In today's NFL, every team is a passing team. The rules make it so. In 2010, every single team in the NFL gained more yards passing the ball than running. Same was true in 2008* and 2007. Every year, the vast majority of teams gain more passing than rushing.
*We skip 2009, because the Jets actually gained more rushing than passing that year.
So what makes a running team? I would suggest a running team is the kind of team that runs the ball more often than other teams. The last five years (which is the time frame we're talking about), only two teams in the NFL -- the Atlanta Falcons and Baltimore Ravens -- ran the ball more than the Steelers. That would seem to qualify them as a running team. Six years ago, the Steelers ran the ball more often than any team in the NFL.
The last five years, only the San Francisco 49ers, Carolina Panthers and Buffalo Bills have thrown the ball FEWER times than the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The last five years, only the Atlanta Falcons (50.4%) have run the ball more often as a percentage of plays than the Pittsburgh Steelers (50.3%).
All of this seems to suggest to me pretty strongly that they still believe in running the ball in Pittsburgh. Of course, show people those numbers and they quickly point out that they are skewed because the Steelers are ahead all the time and are running out time in the fourth quarter, and that's why it LOOKS like they run the ball a lot.
But is that right? I don't think so. The most successful teams of the last five years are New England and Indianapolis. They were two of the top seven in pass attempts that last five years. The Patriots ran the ball 45.7% of the time, the Colts 42.6%.
In fact if you look at percentages, over the last five years the Eagles, Packers, Rams, Saints and Colts have thrown the ball most often and four of those five teams have had a lot of success. The Falcons, Steelers, Panthers, Titans and Jets run the ball most often and, collectively, that's not as impressive a group.
Also: It seems to me that part of being a running team is exactly this: You try to take leads and pound the ball down people's throats in the fourth quarter.
Yes, the Steelers have been throwing for more yards than ever before. Ben Roethlisberger set the team record last year by throwing for 4,328 yards last year. But it seems to me that's more about the times than about any change in philosophy. Pittsburgh this year, as Brilliant Reader Dustin pointed out, ran for 920 more yards than opponents, which tied them with the New York Jets for highest differential. Which sort of gets to my point: Run the ball and stop the run. It's timeless. They come for your heart in Pittsburgh.
It's interesting that one of the reasons the Steelers were able to beat the Jets was because their QB could run the ball. He passed too, of course, but his ability to run was key in their only two offensive touchdowns of the game.
ReplyDeleteThe best part of that equation is the fact the Jets thought they could pull the same defense they did against the undisciplined Tom Brady and Patriots passing attack, baiting them to throw. The problem with that with the Steelers is that Pittsburgh would rather run the ball anyway so they shoved Rashard Mendenhall down their throat for the first half and before they knew it, they were down 24 points. Had they played the run, might have been different.
ReplyDeleteIt comes down to this: The Steelers will run the ball until you force them to pass. Chuck Noll would call a trap play on every down if he could, and he did that for decades!
But one thing that Dan Rooney found in a player like Ben Roethisberger was not just a quarterback who was a prolific passer, but one who was a smart quarterback (Miami of Ohio is not an easy school to skate through) and didn't have the ego that would make him bypass a working running game to pass the ball.
Circle me Big Ben's rape victim.
ReplyDeleteIs "twitter snit" a JoeWord. Maybe it could or should be.
ReplyDeleteI just wrote a nice long comment about my memories as a country kid growing up some 50 miles from Pittsburgh, "Steel City" pride, Emperor Chas Noll (as Myron Cope loved to chortle), the Steeler toughness that existed long before the team found success in the early '70s (remember Ernie Stautner, Big Daddy Lipscomb, John Henry Johnson from some of those '60s teams to name just a few?) and Noll's first draft choice, some not well-known defensive lineman named Mean Joe Greene from that football power of North Texas State. I rather enjoyed writing it but it disappeared out into the cyber ether when I entered my Google account. Oh well, sort of like the dog eating the homework I guess....
ReplyDeleteOne thing I'd love to have verified by someone. I believe the iconic photo of Y.A. Title on his knees with blood coming from his skull was taken in Pitt Stadium in 1964 or '65 after getting pummeled by the Steelers an entire Sunday afternoon. The photo is not grotesque but for its time was a great shot depicting the violent hazards of playing QB in the NFL - at least if you were an old bald guy with a lousy offensive line facing the rugged but undisciplined Steelers of the 1960s. Was that photo in fact from a Giants-Steelers game?
@NMark W --
ReplyDeleteI have that problem with my comments disappearing into the ether all the time on this site, so I always make sure to copy my longer comments to Notepad before clicking on Post or Preview.
Yes, that photo was from a Giants-Steelers game in September 1964, and was taken by Morris Berman of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, previously famous for his photos of the bullet-riddled corpses of Mussolini and his mistress.
Here's a great story about the pic and Tittle:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/fallen_giant.html
This was Tittle's last season, and apparently the hit that led to this photo had a fair amount to do with his decision to retire.
Those 40 years of Pittsburgh Steelers glory owe an awful lot to their decision to accept a "transfer" to the AFC after the NFL-AFL merger in 1970. If not for that, they would probably have continued to be as bad as they had always been in the NFL.
David in NYC: Thanks for your Notebook suggestion. Also, the info about the YA Tittle photo and photographer Morris Berman. Fascinating stuff about him and getting pictures of dead Mussolini and mistress.
ReplyDeleteI can't agree with you about your comment saying Pittsburgh would have remained bad had they not moved to the AFC in 1970 during the AFL-NFL merger. The Rooneys, Chas Noll and staff were beginning to assemble so much superior talent that they would have beaten most anyone they played regardless of conference. Is that not validated by the fact that they won four out of four Super bowls during the 1970s, obviously beating the NFC Champion each time?
Can you clarify where you got the figure 50.3% above, and what you mean by "run the ball more often"? I did my own little analysis of this question, and found the following for Pittsburgh over the past 5 years:
ReplyDeletePercentage of attempts that are runs, 2006-2010: 48% (9th in the league over that time)
Percentage of yards gained that come from runs, 2006-2010: 33% (19th in the league over that time)
So if you go by percentage of plays they run, I guess the Steelers have been a running team, although not at the tippy-top. If you go by yards they gain, however (which I would argue is more relevant, because it shows how they actually generate yards and points, i.e. help their team win games), they are not really a running team -- more in the middle, although more on the passing end of things. The Titans, Falcons, Jaguars, Panthers, Jets and Vikings are running teams, but not the Steelers.
We both could be right, but I was just confused what you meant by your numbers.
(BTW, here's a link to the google spreadsheet I used if you want to play around with the numbers. You can find some interesting stuff, like that the highest percentage of yards any team got running over the past 5 years was just 43% -- it really is a passing league: https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Anhw4XBtdQ2OdEV5MGcwTUlVY05DWmMyTXdXcF83dEE&hl=en&authkey=CP_ZrIAJ)
The trouble with that using the Steelers is the simple fact that Pittsburgh would instead operate the ball anyway so they shoved Rashard
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