Forget about 40 being the new 30. In today's NFL, 30 is now just the norm.
With two games still remaining on the docket for Monday night, there are 10 teams averaging 30 or more points per game in the NFL. Eighteen teams are averaging more than 25 points per game.
The league is on a record pace for touchdowns scored and quarterbacks are on record paces for yardage and touchdown passes.
For defensive players, it's got to be setting off alarms.
"You see the way it’s going. It’s an offensive league," said Steelers cornerback Steven Nelson. "You can barely press a guy up. The defenses are getting a lot of penalties. It’s pretty much seven-on-seven sometimes. Playing defense is definitely a hard job. Offenses definitely have an advantage."
The Steelers thus far have been one of the outliers in this offensive explosion -- on both sides of the ball.
Despite their 3-0 start, they have yet to top or allow 30 points in a game this season as they come out of their forced bye week caused by the coronavirus outbreak with the Titans that forced a postponement of their scheduled meeting with the Steelers.
Though they are averaging a healthy 26.7 points per game, the Steelers haven't scored 30 or more points in 23 games. Ironically, the last time they scored 30, Dec. 2, 2018 against the Chargers, they lost the game, 33-30.
And they have now gone 18 games since allowing an opponent to break the 30-point barrier. The Steelers are allowing 19.3 points per game this season, making them one of just four teams who are giving up fewer than 20 points per game.
But it's been a struggle at times in what has become a pass-happy league.
"People are just air-raiding. People are just throwing," said linebacker Bud Dupree. "(Cowboys quarterback) Dak (Prescott) is throwing for 500 yards. It’s turned into an offensive league."
Prescott is the case and point of the offensive-minded nature of the league. He's thrown for at least 450 yards in each of the Cowboys' last three games and has over 1,600 yards passing in the team's first four. That includes 502 yards passing in Sunday's 49-38 loss to the Browns in Dallas Sunday.
He's hardly alone in throwing the ball all over this season.
But the yards and points aren't always adding up to wins. The Cowboys are now 1-3, a half-game behind the NFC East-leading Eagles (1-2-1), whom the Steelers host next Sunday at Heinz Field.
Nelson alluded to part of the reason for the increase in points score. It's just getting increasingly difficult to play good defense in today's NFL.
Defensive pass interference penalties are up slightly from a year ago, from 1.06 being called per game to 1.38. Meanwhile, offensive holding penalties -- which are often considered drive killers -- are way down. There were 2.74 offensive holding penalties called per game in 2019. This season, that number is 1.66, the lowest number of holds per game in the past decade by more than half a penalty.
Officials just aren't calling offenses for holding defenders, thus allowing quarterbacks to have more time to throw or giving offensive linemen the chance to stay on a block a half-second longer to spring a big play.
And there's really not much defensive players can do about it.
"You’ve just got to bring it to the referee’s attention," Dupree said. "At this point in the season, three games in for us, it’s still like preseason games for the referees. Those guys are kind of warming up, seeing what calls they want to make and what calls they should make. As the season goes on, those calls should pick up."
The Steelers entered Week 4 leading the NFL with 15 sacks, 29 quarterback hits and 39 quarterback pressures. They have led the NFL in sacks in each of the previous three seasons.
They're also first in rushing yards allowed, giving up just 54 yards rushing per game. Despite all of that, their opponents have been penalized just once for offensive holding in the first three games.
In fact, their first opponent, the Giants, are one of two teams in the NFL who have yet to be called for a holding penalty this season. The other is the Raiders.
The Steelers would like to think defense still matters, despite the offensive onslaught that's happening. They feels that's the case.
They hope it becomes reality.
"The best defense will end up being one of the best teams," Dupree said. "We have to work harder and harder to contain some of those explosive offenses to keep the numbers down once we get a chance to play them."