Pittsburgh Steelers Have a 3rd-Down Problem

An unpleasant development has been taking shape for the Pittsburgh Steelers this season: Third downs have been a struggle, both on offense and defense.

Through seven games, the Steelers are converting 36.05 percent of their third downs, which ranks 22nd in the NFL. That's down from a seventh-ranked 43.75 percent in 2014. And on defense, Pittsburgh's opponents are converting 41.24 percent of their third downs, with only six defenses faring worse this year.

The offensive struggles in this area are understandable, given the Week 3 knee injury that has kept quarterback Ben Roethlisberger sidelined until now. Relying on Mike Vick and Landry Jones at quarterback has clearly had a negative effect on the offense as a whole, with third-down conversions just one symptom of the problem.

Pittsburgh has completed only 62.3 percent of its third-down passes this year, the lowest completion percentage of any down, and that percentage dips to 57.1 percent on third downs with six or more yards to go. Granted, those are obvious passing downs, but that's still much lower than the 3rd-and-6-plus completion percentage of 62.5 percent in 2014, when a healthy Roethlisberger played in all 16 games.

	%	Rank	2014 %	2014 Rank
3rd Convert, Offense	36.05%	22nd	43.75%	7th
3rd Convert, Defense	41.24%	25th	37.50%	10th

Roethlisberger's return should result in the Steelers offense improving on third downs from here on out, making this less of a concern than it would have been had he played all seven games. But his return won't help the defense get more third-down stops moving forward.

Last week, the Steelers converted just two of their 10 third downs on offense, while the opposing Kansas City Chiefs converted nine out of 16. With opponents averaging 13.9 third-down situations per game against the Steelers defense, these conversion figures are constantly wearing the team down.

Most notably, Pittsburgh's defense is dealing with third- and fourth-down passes better than third- and fourth-down runs, with Football Outsiders ranking the defense seventh in the former category and 20th in the latter. While the Steelers defense has struggled against the pass this year, that has primarily been a first- and second-down issue.

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Third downs with one to three yards to go have been a particular area of concern for the Steelers defense, where Football Outsiders ranks them 22nd. On third downs with four to six to go, the Steelers rank ninth. They're also 14th in 3rd-and-long situations.

What this means is that the Steelers defense is giving up enough yardage on second downs that opponents are regularly getting short third downs to convert. So it's not surprising that opponents are choosing to run in those situations. Opponents' offensive strategies are becoming predictable, and yet Pittsburgh still isn't able to get enough stops in those situations to end drives.

This wouldn't be such a problem if Roethlisberger had not gotten hurt. The defense was the Steelers' biggest weakness in 2014, but the high-powered offense was able to mask it.

But it's a problem now, given that Pittsburgh has gone four games without their signature offense on the field. And any other injury Roethlisberger suffers will magnify this problem, because yet again, the offense will struggle with Jones or Vick running it while the defense will continue to give up third-down conversions.

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And even with Roethlisberger back, the defense's rate of allowing third-down conversions remains a concern with the Bengals offense—which ranks second in third-down conversion percentage, at 46.67—coming to town in Week 8 and all sorts of high-volume offenses ahead on the schedule. 

While Pittsburgh's third-down offense looks to be on the upswing now that Big Ben is ready to get back on the field, the third-down defense needs more work. The Steelers know a run is coming on 3rd-and-short, but they cannot successfully defend it.

The Steelers, much like last year, need their offense on the field in order to win games. But with the defense continuing to allow opponents' drives to carry on, the offense isn't getting the time it needs. This could put the Steelers in increasingly bad situations, given the teams they are set to face in the remainder of the season.