5 Numbers That Tell The Story Of Pittsburgh’s Disastrous Opener
Photo Credit: Gregory Fisher-USA TODAY Sports
The Pittsburgh Steelers’ extensive preseason hype collided head-on with regular season reality on Sunday. Against the San Francisco 49ers, the Black and Gold were outplayed and outcoached in nearly every aspect of their game that didn’t involve T.J. Watt.
Matt Canada looked, once again, completely ill-equipped, while his young quarterback was abysmal out the gate and couldn’t recover. The defense, expected to rank among the league’s elite, was thoroughly manhandled by Kyle Shanahan’s run-led powerhouse of an offense.
It was the third-worst Week 1 loss in the Mike Tomlin era.
- 2019 – 30 points (33-3 to New England)
- 2011 – 28 points (35-7 to Baltimore
- Today – 23 points (30-7 to San Francisco)
To his credit, Tomlin recognizes the stakes and understands the heat that comes with an opening loss of this magnitude.
“It was a failure on our part in all areas,” Tomlin said in his press conference. “We’ve got to coach better. We’ve got to play better. We talked about a lot of the things and worked on a lot of the things that unfolded in the ways that we didn’t want them to, and so we go back to the drawing board. We accept responsibility, obviously, for the outcome. We compliment those guys on the quality of the work that they did. We absorb the negativity that comes with how we performed today, and we go back to work.”
While the 49ers are absolutely a top team in the league, and playoff spots aren’t won or lost on Week 1, this team has some serious work to do. Here are five numbers that help tell the story of Pittsburgh’s season opening debacle.
9
Excluding one rush that went for 24 yards, Najee Harris had just nine total yards on the day. With seven rushing yards (on five carries) and two receiving yards on two receptions, it was a complete stall-out for a player most were hoping would be the team’s engine early in the season.
While game flow prevented Harris from getting consistent rushes, and the third-year back from Alabama is still the starter for the Steelers, Harris has a lot to prove after Jaylen Warren averaged one yard per carry more than Harris in 2022. If Harris returns to form against a reasonably formidable new Cleveland Browns defensive line, we can chalk this one up to an elite defense and a day gone wrong. If he doesn’t, you can expect his usage to be a hot topic of conversation moving forward.
3.4
One number illuminates the 49ers’ early domination and, given the Harris numbers you read above, it’s not much of a surprise. Strong starts will likely be crucial for a very young offense with a second-year quarterback, but with 1:35 to play before halftime the 49ers were averaging 6.4 yards per rush while the Steelers were averaging just 3.2 yards per play. Yikes. That’s an astounding difference of 3.4 yards! To both allow such an outrageous average deficit in the run game while amassing such a comically miniscule per-play average on offense is an ultimate recipe for disaster. As silly as it sounds, this number indicates the team was lucky to only be down 20 with a chance to put points on the board before half.
3.0
There’s a good 3.0 and a bad 3.0 here.
The good one came from the Steelers’ lone bright spot, T.J. Watt.
While the Steelers themselves struggled mightily on defense, Watt had a monstrous day. The three-time First-Team All-Pro had three sacks, two forced fumbles (one of which he recovered himself), and added a tackle for loss for good measure. After he missed seven games and registered a career low of 5.5 sacks last season, it was good to see Watt begin this season on a high note. His third sack, which caused a fumble, tied him with James Harrison for the all-time sacks record in Steelers history. Hopefully Watts’ reliable excellence can provide a sense of calm as the team sorts through their poor performance and tries to look forward.
The bad 3.0 came from a guy most NFL fans hadn’t heard of before today.
On a star-studded defensive line, it was 49ers 2022 second-round pick Drake Jackson who showed out big. Jackson, who coincidentally had three sacks in all of last season, got to Kenny Pickett for a trio of takedowns, the first being the most crucial. On third down of the Steelers’ opening drive, Jackson corralled Pickett to force a tough three-and-out, and things proceeded to crumble from there.
25
One player taking over the game on offense can often be tough for the opposing team to overcome. Two can be near impossible.
In this game, the stars of the show for the 49ers were Christian McCaffrey and Brandon Aiyuk, who together had 25 more total yards than the Steelers’ entire offense combined (298 vs. 273). McCaffrey tallied 152 rushing yards on 22 carries, a huge chunk of which came on a 65-yard TD in the third quarter, to go along with 17 receiving yards. Aiyuk was Brock Purdy’s go-to target in the air, catching eight passes for 129 yards and…
2
Count ‘em, two touchdowns.
Patrick Peterson came into this game with a world of confidence, predicting he would pick off a Brock Purdy pass on his popular podcast. Instead of intercepting the 2022 Mr. Irrelevant, he allowed two touchdowns to Aiyuk in the first two quarters.
The much-hyped offseason acquisition looked at best old on Sunday as he tried to stick with speedy San Francisco receivers. Cornerbacks are a lot like quarterbacks in this league: They age they age quickly and dramatically. Hopefully this is a blip on Peterson’s Hall of Fame journey and not a sign of what’s to come this season. Regardless, Purdy surely enjoyed taking Peterson’s words and setting them right back in his lap.
Brock Purdy is a menace 😂
🎥: @NBCS49ers pic.twitter.com/x3ckigSCDy
— OurSF49ers (@OurSf49ers) September 10, 2023
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