Defensive adjustments highlight playing time shares for Steelers win over Jaguars
Each week we’ll take a look at the composition of the Steelers wins and losses (and ties too) by examining the team’s snap counts on offense and defense. Here’s a look at the makeup of last week’s game.
Many teams can’t come from behind and win, down 16 points nearly 3 full quarters into the game and on the road. Yet, that’s precisely what Pittsburgh did on Sunday afternoon in Jacksonville, scoring 20 unanswered points to move to 7-2-1 on the season.
Here’s a breakdown of who played Sunday and how adjustments were vital to the Steelers victory.
Offense
| Player | Snaps | Pct |
|---|---|---|
| Foster | 65 | 100% |
| Feiler | 65 | 100% |
| Villanueva | 65 | 100% |
| DeCastro | 65 | 100% |
| Roethlisberger | 65 | 100% |
| Pouncey | 65 | 100% |
| Brown | 64 | 98% |
| Smith-Schuster | 61 | 94% |
| Conner | 58 | 89% |
| McDonald | 52 | 80% |
| Washington | 35 | 54% |
| Switzer | 24 | 37% |
| James | 16 | 25% |
| Nix | 4 | 6% |
| Grimble | 4 | 6% |
| Heyward-Bey | 3 | 5% |
| Samuels | 2 | 3% |
| Okorafor | 2 | 3% |
It may not instantly jump off of the page, but the biggest adjustment that the Steelers made against the Jaguars was playing more multiple receiver sets, which left Jesse James on the bench for a season-low 25% of playing time. James’ previous low was set in Week 9 against the Baltimore Ravens at 43%, the only other time “The Outlaw” as seen less than half of the offensive snaps for the Steelers in 2018.
This adjustment meant Ryan Switzer saw a season-high 37% share of offensive plays, with the obvious number of James’ snaps going to a healthy Vance McDonald, who also saw a season-high of playing time with 80%.
The other counts fall in line with where you typically see them in regard to Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown, and JuJu Smith-Schuster, as well as the offensive line. Rookie WR James Washington still saw a healthy snap count, despite dropping to the 50% range after playing 3/4 of the game or more the previous two weeks.
Defense
| Player | Snaps | Pct |
|---|---|---|
| Haden | 69 | 100% |
| Davis | 69 | 100% |
| Heyward | 62 | 90% |
| Edmunds | 59 | 86% |
| Sensabaugh | 59 | 86% |
| Watt | 59 | 86% |
| Dupree | 57 | 83% |
| Williams | 57 | 83% |
| Bostic | 55 | 80% |
| Hargrave | 51 | 74% |
| Alualu | 39 | 57% |
| Hilton | 25 | 36% |
| Chickillo | 22 | 32% |
| Burnett | 22 | 32% |
| McCullers | 18 | 26% |
| Fort | 14 | 20% |
| Walton | 12 | 17% |
| Dangerfield | 10 | 14% |
Following a week in which he played his highest share of the season, LB Jon Bostic plays his most second-most amount of the game Sunday with 80% of all snaps. His running mate on the inside, Vince Williams, also saw his most playing time in four games with 83%, as the Steelers tried to slow the run-first offense of Jacksonville.
With that in mind, an unlikely candidate played his most reps of 2018. Jordan Dangerfield was used as a cornerback in some spots to help contain the Jaguars rushing attack: his ten snaps were nearly as many as he’s played in three other games all season.
A similar effective move was allowing Dan McCullers to remain in the game. The big man exceeded his all-time snap count total for a single game by playing 26% of the game. Similarly, Javon Hargrave stayed on the field due to the injury to Stephon Tuitt. The “Gravedigger” played season-highs with 51 snaps and 74% of the total defensive plays.
Artie Burns and Cameron Sutton were once again afterthoughts. Each played in the blowout victory against the Carolina Panthers, but those sparse snaps were a blip on the radar as each failed to enter the field at all for the second time since Week 9.
Statistics courtesy of the National Football League
