Five things we learned from the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 27-20 upset victory against the Indianapolis Colts:
1. Quite a resume
As the NFL season hits its midway point, three teams are tied for the best record in the league.
The Steelers have beaten two of them.
No other team can say they’ve defeated two seven-win teams with the calendar now flipped to November. Sunday’s upset of the previously 7-1 Colts came six weeks after the Steelers went on the road to beat the New England Patriots.
New England (7-2) hasn’t lost since.
The Colts didn’t lose at all during the month of October before coming to Pittsburgh.
The Philadelphia Eagles — who are 6-2 themselves — join the Steelers as the NFL’s only other team to have two wins against teams that currently have two or fewer losses. During consecutive late-September weeks, the Eagles beat the Los Angeles Rams (now 6-2) and Tampa Bay Buccaneers (6-2).
When looking at the “resume” the Steelers have put together to this point of the season, it also is important to note that two of their three losses have come to first-place teams — the Seattle Seahawks (6-2) and Green Bay Packers (5-2-1).
2. Safety pins
Through eight games, the Steelers have had six different players start at safety.
On Sunday, it was Jalen Ramsey and Kyle Dugger. Also having made at least one start at safety at the halfway mark of the season are DeShon Elliott, Jabrill Peppers, Chuck Clark and Juan Thornhill.
Elliott is the only one of that group who has played safety in every game that he’s been healthy. (He’s currently on injured reserve after suffering his second knee injury of the season).
But in a sign that best illustrates the Steelers’ search for answers at the back of their defense, each of the other five who have made starts and played major roles at free or strong safety for individual games this season… have also had at least one game during which (for non-injury reasons) did not play at all at safety:
• Peppers twice was limited to special-teams only duty since joining the Steelers.
• Clark — who has twice played as many as 88% of the Steelers’ defensive snaps this season — also was a healthy scratch for the Oct. 12 game against Cleveland.
• Thornhill is listed a starter on the official depth chart — and he played every single snap of the Week 2 game against Seattle — but against the Colts he did not step onto the field on defense.
• Three-time All Pro Ramsey, of course, hasn’t been benched. But he is a cornerback by trade and has gone three games without lining up even once at safety (per Pro Football Focus data). Against Indianapolis, he lined up there throughout the game.
3. Short, quick passes
Game flow and situational football had much to do with it. But after a slight reprieve in recent weeks, the Steelers passing offense reverted well back into its quick-passing, dink-and-dunk ways.
Of all Week 9 starting quarterbacks (not including Monday night), the Steelers’ Aaron Rodgers’ average time to throw (according to NFL Next Gen Stats) was by far the quickest at 2.14 seconds. To illustrate how relatively fast that is to let go of passes, consider that 22 of the other 25 quarterbacks let the ball go on average between 2.6 and 3.8 seconds.
A similar picture is painted in Rodgers’ average completed air yards and average intended air yards (“air yards” is the distance beyond the line of scrimmage that a pass is thrown to). Rodgers’ completions averaged a mere 1.7 yards down the field and his average intended pass was 2.7 yards down the field.
Only one of the other 25 quarterbacks had an average completed air yards of less than 4.2. None had a lower intended air yards of less than 4.4.
For the season, Rodgers rates as the second-quickest time-to-throw of any qualifying QB, the second-fewest completed air yards and the lowest figure for intended air yards.
4. In the books
It had been more than 30 months and almost 2½ full league seasons since Lew Nichols had been drafted into the NFL. Sunday, Nichols finally got to say that he’s officially an NFL player.
Nichols appeared in a regular-season NFL game for the first time. A one-time national FBS rushing yardage leader in college, Nichols signed with the Steelers early during training camp and turned heads as a running back. He was placed on the practice squad for the start of this season and was announced as an elevation to the active gameday roster for Sunday against the Colts.
“It’s a dream come true,” Nichols said after the game. “I’ve been working for it. It’s definitely a blessing and I’m definitely grateful. I’ve got to continue working, but I definitely was excited today to get that first NFL regular-season game under my belt.”
Nichols did not play on offense against Indianapolis and was limited to six plays in which he was on the coverage team for kickoffs.
A seventh-round pick of the Green Bay Packers out of Central Michigan in 2023, Nichols spent most of the past two years as property of the Philadelphia Eagles.
5. Snap chats
Analysis of the snap counts from Sunday’s game reveals how often the Steelers went to unconventional looks with either three inside linebackers or three outside linebackers on the field.
At inside linebacker, Patrick Queen (as is custom) played every snap. Payton Wilson almost did so, getting on the field for 66 of the Steelers’ 78 defensive plays. Playing for the first time since the season opener (he suffered a knee injury that day in New Jersey), Malik Harrison played 22 snaps.
That indicates that for at least 10 Colts offensive plays, the Steelers had all three on the field at once.
A similar phenomenon happened at outside linebacker, albeit with four players instead of just three. T.J. Watt played 78% of the snaps, Alex Highsmith (despite a brief injury-related reprieve) played 62%, Nick Herbig played 51% and rookie Jack Sawyer 26%.
The math indicates that for at least 13 defensive snaps, three Steelers edge defenders took the field together.
Chris Adamski is a TribLive reporter who has covered primarily the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2014 following two seasons on the Penn State football beat. A Western Pennsylvania native, he joined the Trib in 2012 after spending a decade covering Pittsburgh sports for other outlets. He can be reached at cadamski@triblive.com.
