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The Steelers' offense is teeming with superstars. There's Ben Roethlisberger, who just moved past Fran Tarkenton for eighth all-time in career passing touchdowns. Antonio Brown, whose career thus far has paralleled that of Jerry Rice. Gamebreaker and social media maven JuJu Smith-Schuster. And now James Conner, who's bulldozing defenders like he's Bo Jackson in Tecmo Bowl. That doesn't even count holdout Le'Veon Bell, one of the most productive all-around backs in history on a per-game basis.
None of those stars would shine near as bright, however, without the clean pockets and gaping holes provided by the Steelers' offensive line, which is as eclectic as it is talented.
Sure, the O-line features some highly-drafted and highly-compensated players (center Maurkice Pouncey and right guard David DeCastro are former first-round picks, and right tackle Marcus Gilbert was selected in the second round). But there's also college tight end-turned-Army Ranger-turned-defensive end-turned-Pro Bowl left tackle Alejandro Villanueva and left guard Ramon Foster, a former undrafted free agent who has cobbled together a successful, decade-long career. Following in Foster's footsteps are B.J. Finney and Matt Feiler, both undrafted players who can suit up at multiple positions. When Foster and Gilbert missed time with injuries, Finney and Feiler filled in admirably. Clearly, Steelers scouts have an eye for offensive line talent, and coach Mike Munchak knows how to maximize that talent.
How good has Pittsburgh's O-line been in 2018? For starters, they're giving Roethlisberger time to find an open receiver and preventing him from taking punishing shots. Roethlisbeger has been sacked on just 3.3 percent of pass attempts, which is the second-lowest rate among all NFL teams (the Colts are first, at 2.8 percent). That's also the second-lowest sack rate of Roethlisberger's career; he went down on 3.2 percent of pass attempts in 2016. Some of that is Ben doing a better job of releasing the ball instead of getting lit up like he did early in his career, but plenty of credit goes to the guys up front. According to Pro Football Focus' 0-100 player grade system, DeCastro (85.5 pass protection grade), Foster (81.9), Villanueva (78.9) and Gilbert (76.6) all have done quality work in pass protection. Finney (90) has been awesome, too, albeit in limited snaps.
The line also is clearing a path for Conner, who ranks third among NFL running backs in rushing yards (599) while averaging a healthy 4.7 yards per carry. The Steelers excel at running the ball to the right side of the line, as Football Outsiders' Adjusted Line Yards (ALY) stat demonstrates. ALY focuses on the yardage earned closer to the line of scrimmage, which a runner tends to gain because his linemen cleared a path for him. ALY is adjusted for the down, distance, game situation, and quality of the opponent. When the Steelers run to the right side, they're averaging more than 6 adjusted yards per carry:
It's cliché at this point to say that linemen are underrated, and, by the standards of the position, the Steelers get a fair amount of recognition. But it's hard to argue with the notion that they're earning their place on the list of the NFL's best offensive lines in 2018. From drafting first-round picks with multi-million bonuses to uncovering undrafted practice squad players from Bloomsburg, the Steelers know how to build a line that makes the most out of the team's "skill position" stars.
MORE STEELERS
• Kings of the North? Not long ago, the Steelers appeared headed for one of the franchise's all-time most disappointing seasons, given the wide gulf between the team's talent and performance. With a 1-2-1 record and having just been soundly beaten at home by the division rival Ravens, Pittsburgh's playoff odds stood at a dismal 40 percent, according to the analytics company AccuScore. Meanwhile, the Ravens had a 60 percent shot at making the playoffs, and the Bengals (35 percent) were in the same range as the Steelers. (Cleveland's odds back then were two percent.) But, with the Steelers reeling off three straight wins — including two against division opponents — and the rest of the division suffering some setbacks, their chances of competing for a seventh Lombardi Trophy have greatly improved. Entering Week 9, the Steelers' odds of making the postseason sit at about 65 percent. That leads the Bengals (42 percent) and Ravens (38 percent). What about Cleveland, you ask? C'mon — one percent. The Steelers have the best odds of winning the AFC North at 50 percent, compared to 25 percent for the Bengals and 24 percent for the Ravens.
• Appreciating Hilton: When it comes to drafting and developing cornerbacks, the Steelers have a rather tortured history. But the team has scored a big win with slot corner Mike Hilton. Hilton, who went undrafted out of Mississippi one year after the Steelers sank a second-round pick on teammate Senquez Golson, has emerged as one of the better slot corners in the NFL. Hilton rates as the 25th-best overall cornerback so far in 2018, according to Pro Football Focus. The ranking takes into account a player's coverage, run defense and pass rush skills and uses a 0-100 scale. It looks like he has improved upon his work during a quality 2017 season, too. Last year, Hilton allowed a catch rate of 64.4 percent and an average of 12.3 yards per reception, according to playerprofiler.com. In 2018, he's allowing a catch rate of 57.9 percent and 11.2 yards per reception.
PENGUINS
• A record-breaking power play? Both power-play opportunities and goals are on the rise during the early portion of the 2018-19 season, with teams getting an average of 3.4 chances on the power play per game (up from 3.04 in 2017-18) and converting at a 20.7 percent clip (up from 20.2 percent last year). The Penguins once again are crushing it on the power play and are a threat to top last season's franchise-best 26.2 percent conversion rate. In fact, the Penguins — or another offensively loaded team — could set a new single-season power play record. The current title holders? The 1977-78 Canadiens, who scored on 31.9 percent of their power play opportunities.
• He is Iron Man: Every game since Nov. 3, 2009, Phil Kessel has suited up for work. Kessel's consecutive games played streak has reached 702 games, which is the ninth-longest streak in NHL history and the third-longest streak among active players (behind Patrick Marleau and Keith Yandle. Kessel and those two other modern-day iron men have a ways to go before they surpass all-time leader Doug Jarvis (964 consecutive games played from 1975-87). Kessel obviously hasn't just shown up for work, either. When you combine his durability and scoring prowess, he has been one of the NHL's best over the past decade. Since the beginning of the 2009-10 season, Kessel ranks 20th among all NHL skaters in Point Shares. A Hockey-Reference.com stat, Point Shares estimates a skater's offensive and defensive contributions to his team's overall point total and is adjusted for the league-wide offensive environment at the time. Question his conditioning and defensive effort all you want, the dude just keeps showing up, unleashing hellacious snap shots and wristers and setting up his linemates with heavenly passes.
• Early returns on Jack: Penguins free agent acquisition and statistical-analysis lightning rod Jack Johnson is off to a bumpy start. While coach Mike Sullivan has come to his defense and — rightly — noted that he doesn't bear full responsibility, Johnson has nonetheless been on the ice for a team-high 11 goals against. With Johnson skating, the Penguins have generated just 43.2 percent of total shots taken, 47.9% percent of scoring chances, and 40.7 percent of high-danger scoring chances (those with the highest probability of turning into goals). Expect the debate over Johnson to continue for the next, oh, four-plus seasons.
PIRATES
• Pitcher hitting a weak spot: It's pretty much a universal truth that pitchers are lousy hitters. But some are lousier than others, and the occasional base knock from a pitcher can make a serious difference in the standings. On that front, the Pirates' staff needs some extra rounds of BP. In 2018, Pirates pitchers were a collective -55.8 runs worse offensively than an average MLB hitter, according to Fangraphs. That ranked 12th among National League teams, ahead of only the Cubs, Giants and Braves. For comparison's sake, the Brewers (-38 batting runs) and Cardinals (-38.7) had best offensive pitching staffs. One win in the standings is worth about 10 runs, so the Pirates left a pair of Ws on the table with their pitcher hitting compared to their NL Central foes.
• A faulty bridge: The Pirates feature some dominant arms at the back of their bullpen, led by Felipe Vazquez and Keone Kela. Kyle Crick and Richard Rodriguez also have the ability to pitch in high-leverage spots. But, when a Pirates starter has a quick exit, and the team must call upon middle relief, things get messy. Last year, Pirates pitchers surrendered a collective .790 on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS) in the 6th inning of games — the sixth-worst mark among MLB teams and 40 points above the overall MLB average. Some of the blame goes to starters who didn't fare well while facing hitters for the third time in a game, but a larger share goes to the middle relief corps. With Edgar Santana out of the picture while recovering from Tommy John surgery, it's even more important for the Pirates to find a reliable bridge to the back end of the 'pen.
• A zero-sum game: In 2018, left fielder Corey Dickerson became a fundamentally different type of hitter. He just didn't necessarily become a better one. After belting 27 home runs in 2017 with the Rays, Dickerson went deep only 13 times with the Pirates. But he did manage to significantly lower his strikeout rate (from 24.2 percent in '17 to 15 percent in '18) and raise his batting average from .282 to .300. Dickerson made a concerted effort to swing and miss less on pitches thrown over the plate, increasing his in-zone contact rate from 75.3 percent with the Rays to a league-average 85.8 percent in Pittsburgh. As a low-contact, power-hungry hitter in Tampa, Dickerson posted a park-and-league-adjusted OPS that was 18 percent above the overall MLB average in 2017. As a contact-oriented Pirate, his adjusted OPS was 19 percent above average.
COLLEGES
• Ground game dominance: If you thought that the 336 rushing yards that Pitt racked up against Duke in 2017 was impressive, that was nothing compared to the ground game clinic that the Panthers put on display on Saturday. Collectively, Pitt rushed for 484 yards versus the Blue Devils — the second-highest single-game total in school history. The only other time that Pitt had a more prolific rushing day in its 114-year, 1,188-game history was Oct. 18, 1975 at Army (530 yards). Tony Dorsett did the heavy lifting that day, rushing for 268 yards. Pitt's effort versus Duke was more evenly distributed, with RB Qadree Ollison (149 yards), backup DB/scout team star/number-changing man of mystery V'Lique Carter (137), QB Kenny Pickett (76), WR Maurice Ffrench (69) and RB Darrin Hall (53) all ripping off impressive runs. The Panthers now have one of the top running games in all of college football. They rank 22nd in the FBS in rushing yards per game (227.9) and 14th in yards per carry (5.7)
• Ffrench's fforte: Speaking of Ffrench, the junior wide receiver and late-game hero has emerged as an all-around offensive threat for the Panthers. Ffrench had 220 all-purpose yards versus Duke, and he has compiled 809 all-purpose yards during the 2018 season. That's the second-highest total on the team, behind only Ollison (845 yards), and he ranks eighth among all ACC players. With 17.2 yards per touch, Ffrench leads the Panthers and places third among ACC players.
• Snatching victory from defeat: After faltering in late-game, high-pressure situations in recent weeks, Penn State came up with some clutch plays to seal a 30-24 victory over Iowa. The most significant among them might have been safety Nick Scott's interception of Hawkeyes QB Nate Stanley. With 3:18 remaining in the fourth quarter and Penn State clinging to a six-point lead, Iowa had a first and goal at the Nittany Lions' 2-yard line. At the time, Penn State had about a 47 percent chance of emerging victorious, according to win probability models that account for the game score, time remaining in the game, and the down and distance of the current offensive drive. After Scott's pick, Penn State's win probability skyrocketed to 86 percent.
THE NATIONAL TREND
• From Bobby Orr and Marcel Dionne, to Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux, to Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin, and now to Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews, the NHL has been the home of young prodigies for generations. But even by hockey standards, the game is getting younger. In 2018-19, the average age of an NHL player is 27.6 years old. That's down from 28.0 last year and marks the fifth consecutive season that the average league-wide player age has declined or remained the same. Last year, the average age of the NHL's top 20 scorers was just 26.7. The Penguins, once a beacon of youth, now have the NHL's sixth-oldest roster (an average age of 28.5 years). Not that the likes of Sid, Geno, Letang and Kessel have shown any signs of decline in their 30s, though.
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