Playing time tracker for Steelers vs. Chiefs
The Pittsburgh Steelers got back to their winning ways by unseating the NFL’s only undefeated team this weekend. The makeup of that victory is one that has a lot of fans grasping at whether they want to see a certain segment of players on the field or not. Truthfully, whether we want to see “ground and pound” or a vertical game, Pittsburgh gave us a little bit of both against KC.
After the drama stirred up by a potential trade rumor involving Martavis Byrant, the Steelers did, in fact, play a different style of game on Sunday against the Chiefs. It was obvious they got back to running the football, but Bryant’s time wasn’t too limited in the game, playing a little over half of the Steelers offensive snaps. Within that same context, TE Vance McDonald and FB Roosevelt Nix each played a season-high number of snaps. McDonald, who was brought in via a trade with the 49ers just before the regular season kicked off, was involved in 41% of the Steelers offensive plays.
Nix found himself on the field for 27% of the snaps.
However, those players only played a tick higher in actual snaps versus a playing timeshare (or percentage) due to the Steelers running only 64 offensive plays on Sunday. In the previous two weeks, the Steelers ran 76 and 79 plays.
Surprisingly (for some, not myself) the increase in playing time for McDonald did not cut into Jesse James’ playing time whatsoever. The Outlaw was on the field for 86% of the time. You may have blinked and missed Eli Rogers participating in 20% of the snaps also. He cut into Bryant’s playing time the most, as Antonio Brown played around his usual share of with 89% of the playing time.
The clear “loser” in this game on offense was Marcus Gilbert, who re-injured his hamstring and only played 1/3 of the game.
The big news on the defense was the return of James Harrison. “Deebo” would play 15 snaps (28%) of the game. His counterpart in the rotation, Anthony Chickillo, stepped on the field 11 times. Bud Dupree (80%) and T.J. Watt (74%) round out the outside linebackers, while Ryan Shazier once again played the entire game.
Shazier has yet to leave the field in 2017, however, his partner Vince Williams played just under half of the game after leaving with an injury. Rather than straight-up replace Williams with another inside linebacker (such as Tyler Matakevich) the Steelers opted for using three outside linebackers on a few plays (stacking Bud Dupree or James Harrison in different looks) as well as utilizing dime package corner William Gay. Gay would play 39% of this game, particularly as time wound down in the fourth quarter.
Nickel corner Mike Hilton saw his second-most reps this season with 69%. Artie Burns and Mike Mitchell played the entire game, while Joe Haden and Sean Davis only left for one player each (which would be the one play J.J. Wilcox entered the game).
The defensive linemen didn’t shift much either, as Tyson Alualu saw a season-low seven snaps, and L.T. Walton once again disappeared, dropping from six snaps last week to only a single snap this week. Cameron Heyward and Stephon Tuitt each logged a strong amount of time, with 91% and 87% respectively.
