Injuries influence Steelers snap count totals in win against the Chargers

Typically, you can learn a lot about the makeup of a football game by snap counts.

If there’s a lesson to be learned by Sunday’s Steelers win over the Chargers, it’s that the team suffered some injuries and also has a lot of depth.

On offense, the line nearly stayed intact all game, as per the usual. Devlin Hodges made his first start, Benny Snell saw his most reps of his rookie season and Ryan Switzer made his first appearance on that side of the ball in several games.

Donte Moncrief also played a healthy portion (14 snaps) up from, well, three snaps over the previous three weeks.

However, it was the big package football that the Steelers were able to utilize that had been missing in some previous games due to injuries and lack of personnel. A combination of Vance McDonald, Nick Vannett, and Zach Banner helped lead the Steelers offense to their most rushing yards (124) in a game thus far in the 2019 season. (And their only 100+ yard rushing performance as a team this season too.)

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On defense Artie Burns went from playing two snaps to an entire game, taking the injured Steven Nelson’s spot.

Cameron Sutton also saw significant playing time when Joe Haden exited the game, while Tyson Alualu entered rather early also when Stephon Tuitt headed to the sidelines, unable to return.

It was a fairly erratic set of snap counts for the defense, even with Dan McCullers getting a healthy dose of reps as the nose tackle in certain situations.

Here are the full snap counts from both sides of the ball from Sunday’s 24-17 Steelers victory.

Steelers Offense

Steelers Defense