An interesting topic of conversation came up on the podcast of former Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Arthur Moats. Moats was asked about why the Steelers have been so bad in the red zone this season. And as he always does, Moats did a great job of breaking down why teams struggle in the red zone and that this isn’t just a struggle for Pittsburgh.
This got me wondering just how good or bad the Steelers have been in relation to the rest of the league. Here is what the numbers tell us. Pittsburgh is currently 21st in the league in red zone scoring (touchdowns only).
Over the course of the season, Pittsburgh scores a touchdown in the red zone 52.08 percent of the time. To compare, the Philadelphia Eagles are 1st at 72.22 percent and the New England Patriots are worst at 41.46 percent.
It’s important to keep in mind, in the first half of the season, the Steelers offense was absolutely dreadful. During the Steelers current three-game winning streak, they are 7th in the league, scoring a touchdown 71.43 percent of the time.
As Moats noted, the condensed field really makes it challenging for a team to score touchdowns because it creates much smaller windows for quarterback Kenny Pickett to make throws in and the margin for error is razor-thin. This is where offensive coordinator Matt Canada needs to earn his paycheck and scheme some plays that utilize moving Pickett around in the pocket to widen those windows and utilize guys like tight end Pat Freiermuth who operates better in a phone booth.
