The Pittsburgh Steelers misplaced to the Philadelphia Eagles largely as a result of they bought outplayed on each side of the ball. But when there was one space the place that they had an opportunity to steal a win, it was the turnover margin. The Steelers had an early plus-two lead in turnover margin with a pressured fumble by T.J. Watt and a pressured fumble by Mark Robinson on the punt-coverage staff. The one concern is, they managed simply three factors off the 2 takeaways.
Charlie Batch joined Randy Baumann on 102.5 WDVE’s Morning Present and mentioned one factor he desires to see the Steelers enhance on. If that they had scored extra factors off the turnovers, he thinks it might have modified your entire complexion of the Eagles sport.
“There’s always three or four plays in a game you’re like, ‘Man, if we make this play, the outcome could have been different,’” Batch mentioned. “To me, the key point was early in that first quarter you create two turnovers. One at the 50, one in good field position in the red zone and you only get three points out of it. If you get 14 points, that changes the whole narrative of that game. It forces them to play from behind and then you never know how the rest of the game was gonna unfold.”
Two touchdowns would have been nice, however I’d have settled for 10 factors off the 2 turnovers. Getting simply three is painful, particularly once they have the very best kicker within the NFL who can hit something below 60 yards with wonderful consistency.
The primary turnover close to the 50 resulted in a three-and-out. The Steelers had two incomplete passes after which an 11-yard sack on Russell Wilson. They couldn’t even achieve a yard not to mention rating a landing.
The second turnover regarded fairly good at first with Najee Harris leaping over defenders for a good achieve. The one concern is a scuffle resulted in two flags on the Steelers to place them behind the chains, forcing them to accept a subject purpose. I don’t actually put that one on the Steelers as a result of it was officiated poorly.
The Steelers are forcing probably the most turnovers within the league. It’s one of many huge explanation why they’re 10-4 and in place to win the AFC North. However they aren’t very environment friendly at scoring off them.
Here’s a chart through TruMedia for the entire league displaying turnovers pressured and factors off turnovers. The Steelers are beneath the trendline, which suggests they’re inefficient at scoring on their sudden-change alternatives. On 30 turnovers, they’ve scored 88 factors. That’s 2.93 factors per turnover, which is lower than a subject purpose per alternative. The league common is 3.25 factors, which provides up over the course of 30 turnovers.
“This Steelers team [has] been great at creating turnovers, just not producing points off of them,” Batch mentioned.
In the meantime, the Eagles pressured one turnover with Najee Harris fumbling on a toss play, they usually turned it right into a 13-play drive to attain seven factors. That was finally the distinction on this sport.
One of many huge benefits the Steelers have coming into the playoffs is the power to win the turnover battle. The additional possessions are nice, however they solely matter in the event that they capitalize with factors.
