The top stories coming out of every iteration of the last few offseasons have been the same for the Pittsburgh Steelers. The offense stakes their claim at scoring 30 or more points per game, while the defense boasts some form of improvement in the form of an improvement against the pass.

What if I told you that both sides of the ball just have to do the very same thing to be successful? What would you say?

If your answer is improve scoring efficiency, you win a gold star.

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Despite making the playoffs in three consecutive seasons, and winning their division in two of those three campaigns, the Steelers haven’t quite lived up to having a consistently high-scoring offense or shutdown defense. They have flashed potential at being good at each, but have never been exceptionally great at either, due to a myriad of issues such as injuries and departures.

During the 2016 season, the Steelers offense was the 11th-best in scoring drive efficiency in the National Football League.

Rank	Team	Scoring	Drives	Scoring %	Yards	Avg Yards
1	Atlanta Falcons	92	175	52.6	5,651	61
2	New Orleans Saints	83	181	45.9	5,251	63
3	Dallas Cowboys	76	173	43.9	4,764	63
4	Green Bay Packers	77	176	43.8	4,616	60
5	Washington Redskins	76	175	43.4	4,781	63
6	New England Patriots	78	181	43.1	4,652	60
7	Detroit Lions	64	156	41	3,947	62
8	Indianapolis Colts	73	180	40.6	4,348	60
9	Oakland Raiders	75	194	38.7	4,130	55
10	San Diego Chargers	70	181	38.7	4,255	61
11	Pittsburgh Steelers	70	182	38.5	4,250	61

Several of the teams listed in the top ten of scoring efficiency made the playoffs last year. The Atlanta Falcons made the Super Bowl after an offensive explosion, but their defense surprisingly struggled, ranking 23rd in efficiency. A better balance could be the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots who were 6th in offensive efficiency but ranked 2nd overall on the other side of the football. Here are those rankings based on opponent’s drives:

Rank	Team	Scoring Drives	Drives	Scoring Efficiency %
1	Baltimore Ravens	54	191	28.3
2	New England Patriots	51	180	28.3
3	Seattle Seahawks	53	184	28.8
4	Denver Broncos	57	196	29.1
5	New York Giants	59	197	29.9
6	Los Angeles Rams	60	192	31.3
7	Houston Texans	59	185	31.9
8	Kansas City Chiefs	59	181	32.6
9	Arizona Cardinals	64	193	33.2
10	Minnesota Vikings	60	177	33.9
11	Philadelphia Eagles	64	186	34.4
12	Tennessee Titans	62	177	35
13	Pittsburgh Steelers	62	177	35

Obviously, there’s a correlation between scoring and allowing your opponents to not score. The team with more points wins, right?

So which improvement will help the Steelers get over the hump and return to the Super Bowl? In my opinion, I would say it’s defensive efficiency, though there’s room for improvement in both areas. The reason I chose the defensive side of the ball is that they rank a smidge lower in the rankings, behind several teams who failed to make the postseason.

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Then there’s that entire thing with the Steelers not being able to stop the Patriots in the AFC Championship game, which then kicks over to the Falcons high-powered offense taking it to New England for three-quarters of the Super Bowl, then failing to finish. Atlanta ranked 23rd in defensive efficiency, supporting the age-old adage that defense wins games. Adding some extra stops would catapult the Steelers efficiency into the top ten, and potentially into the top five.

We already feel the offense can be equally great, but the hope may not be there for the defense yet, but it should be. Over the final nine games of the regular season (all wins) the Steelers defense contained opponents to under 100 yards rushing and 20 or fewer points in seven of those games. Their passing defense also improved, relinquishing an average of 60 fewer yards per game over the same span; good enough to be considered in the top-five passing defenses (by yards) in the league.

Offensively the Steelers scored at least 24 points in all nine of those games, but only scored more than 30 once (31 against Baltimore).

The telling stat, however, is still defensive scoring efficiency. In order to compete with the Patriots of the world, the Steelers will have to find a similar balance of top ten efficiency of offense and defense. If they continue their trend from last season that’s possible: as long as they remain consistent.