Steelers game planning similar to Patriots victory, but results in Saints loss
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.
Going up against the juggernaut that is the New Orleans Saints, the Steelers knew they would have their hands full on both sides of the football. The scenario wasn’t much different than a week earlier against the New England Patriots, either. In fact, Pittsburgh deployed much of the same philosophy with attacking the Saints as they did with their AFC foe.
Here’s a breakdown and analysis on the playing time and how the Steelers game planned for the Saints.
Offense
| Player | Snaps | Pct |
|---|---|---|
| Foster | 75 | 100% |
| Feiler | 75 | 100% |
| Villanueva | 75 | 100% |
| DeCastro | 75 | 100% |
| Roethlisberger | 75 | 100% |
| Pouncey | 75 | 100% |
| Brown | 72 | 96% |
| Smith-Schuster | 69 | 92% |
| Samuels | 53 | 71% |
| Rogers | 38 | 51% |
| Switzer | 35 | 47% |
| McDonald | 34 | 45% |
| Washington | 27 | 36% |
| James | 17 | 23% |
| Grimble | 15 | 20% |
| Nix | 5 | 7% |
| Ridley | 5 | 7% |
| Okorafor | 4 | 5% |
| Heyward-Bey | 1 | 1% |
I wish I could tell you that there was much of a difference with Sunday’s game plan on the offensive side of the ball, but there wasn’t.
As predicted earlier on the Steel City Underground Podcast pregame show, the Steelers leaned on their deep group of receivers in the absence of RB James Conner. That meant ample playing time for Ryan Switzer and Eli Rogers, who both saw roughly half of the offensive snaps.
Mysteriously, Jesse James has disappeared from games, with Xavier Grimble seeing spot duty and even Vance McDonald watching his usage dip in recent weeks.
No surprises here, including Jaylen Samuels usage. Just a wonder why the Steelers didn’t use the five receivers more often after gaining a lead is the only question mark when looking at this table.
Defense
| Player | Snaps | Pct |
|---|---|---|
| Edmunds | 66 | 100% |
| Haden | 66 | 100% |
| Davis | 65 | 98% |
| Sensabaugh | 64 | 97% |
| Watt | 64 | 97% |
| Heyward | 57 | 86% |
| Dupree | 54 | 82% |
| Tuitt | 50 | 76% |
| Williams | 47 | 71% |
| Burnett | 47 | 71% |
| Hilton | 37 | 56% |
| Hargrave | 30 | 45% |
| Fort | 23 | 35% |
| Bostic | 18 | 27% |
| Alualu | 15 | 23% |
| McCullers | 13 | 20% |
| Sutton | 7 | 11% |
| Chickillo | 2 | 3% |
| Dangerfield | 2 | 3% |
The Steelers defensive philosophy continued with a bend but don’t break mantra, utilizing more defensive backs by playing a healthy Morgan Burnett significantly throughout the game.
The secondary remained largely untouched with nearly 100% participation amongst Joe Haden, Coty Sensabaugh, Terrell Edmunds, and Sean Davis. Mike Hilton was his usual chess piece, while Cameron Sutton continued to find himself in subpackages late in the season.
The most notable change came as Vince Williams went down during the game. L.J. Fort entered the game for over a third of the defensive snaps.
Statistics courtesy of the National Football League
