5 Key 2014 Defensive Stats for the Pittsburgh Steelers

The Pittsburgh Steelers have long been renowned for their hard-hitting and fearsome defense. But in 2014, that wasn't the case. The defense was significantly outshone by the Steelers' offense, which proved to be the one of the top units in the league.

But why was that? Let's take a look at five key Steelers' defensive stats from last year. While these stats cannot tell the entire story of Pittsburgh's 2014 defense, they can shine some light on areas that performed well and ones that will need work in 2015.

Sacks: 33

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That once-fearsome Steelers defense struggled to affect opposing quarterbacks often in 2014, amassing 33 sacks on the year. Only six teams had fewer. And no Steelers defender reached a double-digit sack total last season, as now-retired linebacker Jason Worilds and defensive end Cameron Heyward led the team with 7.5 apiece.

The goal this year is to reverse that trend, and it starts with Round 1 2015 draft pick Bud Dupree. And one of his missions for 2015 is to return the Steelers' defensive front to its former glory. He told Cleveland.com's Tom Reed, "I want to be in that group that brings it back. We want to bring back that hunger, that eagerness to go after the quarterback."

Dupree will be joined by fellow outside linebackers James Harrison, Jarvis Jones and Arthur Moats as the players most often tasked with pressuring quarterbacks. But they won't be the only ones—the defensive line will also have to generate pressure, such as Heyward did last year.

And Heyward knows that the defense needs to be more aggressive up front, telling MMQB.com's Robert Klemko, "We're making a conscious effort to make sure we're optimizing our chances to get to the quarterback." Hopefully with a renewed focus on the pass rush and the addition of Dupree, the Steelers can get their sack total to where they'd like it to be in 2015.

Interceptions: 11

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The Steelers' struggles against the pass weren't just limited to an inability to consistently pressure quarterbacks. They also could not generate turnovers, particularly interceptions, in order to kill opponents' drives. Pittsburgh's defense had only 11 interceptions in 2014, tied with the Baltimore Ravens. Like with sacks, only six teams had fewer.

The hope is that the addition of cornerback Senquez Golson, whom the Steelers drafted in Round 2 this year, can increase that number this year. Golson had 10 interceptions in 2014. Safety Gerod Holliman could also assist this effort, given that he had 14 interceptions last year, but he has to get on the field—and improve his tackling—first.

Pittsburgh's secondary didn't do a good job in coverage last year. Passers throwing against the Steelers had an average quarterback rating of 98.3, and the unit allowed completions on 64.5 percent of attempts. So more interceptions would have helped considerably. And that's something general manager Kevin Colbert focused on when drafting this year; the plan now is to make that pay off quickly.

Opponent Yards Per Rush: 4.4

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With Pittsburgh's secondary one of its biggest defensive weaknesses last year—and with the offense so high-scoring—opponents opted to run against them sparingly. The Steelers saw only 368 rushing attempts last year and allowed an average of 100.3 rushing yards per game, the sixth-lowest average in the league.

But what matters more is what teams managed to do with their rare rushing attempts against the Steelers, and that's where things got messy. On average, the Steelers allowed 4.4 yards per rush, the 25th-best total in the league. If they had seen the 450 rushes that the Atlanta Falcons and Minnesota Vikings faced in 2014, that would have meant nearly 2,000 rushing yards given up, significantly more than the 1,605 they ended the year with.

The Steelers' front seven not only needs to improve its pass rush but must also do better against the run on a per-rush basis. The defense cannot just assume that the offense's high level of production will continue and force opponents to pass more than they run. Because once offenses learn that the Steelers are giving up 4.4 yards per carry, the run attempts will increase, and the team's low per-game rushing yardage will rise in turn.

Opponent Red-Zone Touchdown Percentage: 54.72

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The Steelers showed slight improvement in 2014 in opponent red-zone touchdown percentage. Including the playoffs, they allowed a touchdown to their opponents on 54.72 percent of their red-zone appearances, good for the 19th-best percentage in the league.

That's an improvement on their 56.36 touchdown percentage from 2013. And they got better as the year progressed. In their final three games, they allowed red-zone touchdowns to their opponents only 40 percent of the time. That's something for the team to build upon this offseason.

Also notable is that Pittsburgh's defense was more stingy on the road than at home, with opponents scoring touchdowns 50 percent of the time when the Steelers were traveling versus 58.06 percent of the time in Heinz Field. The Steelers need to do a better job of defending their home turf.

Missed Tackles: 107

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The Steelers defense ranked 23rd in total tackles last year with 1,006. But what about the tackles they didn't make?

Pro Football Focus took a look at the tackling efficiency of every NFL defense in 2014 and determined that the Steelers missed 107 tackles on 1,010 defensive snaps played. That means .106 missed tackles per snap, which ranked 19th in the league.

Unsurprisingly, inside linebacker Lawrence Timmons was charged with the most missed tackles on the team with 19. But it's to be expected, given his myriad assignments against the run and in coverage and because he played the most defensive snaps among all Steelers defenders. He was followed by cornerback William Gay (13), safety Troy Polamalu (11) and linebacker Sean Spence (9).

The good news is that Shamarko Thomas will replace Polamalu this year; the bad news, though, is that we don't yet know if that will result in an improvement in missed tackles. And Spence will likely be on the sidelines more often than he was in 2014, so long as Ryan Shazier remains healthy.

Another good sign is that defensive end Cameron Heyward had only one missed tackle though he played 876 snaps last year. Heyward is quickly becoming a centerpiece of the Steelers defense, and so long as younger players are learning from his example, the missed tackles could become a thing of the past this year.