The Pittsburgh Steelers had their first contest in preparation for the 2024 season by coming up short at home against the Houston Texans in Week 1 of the preseason. There was plenty to take away from the game on the negative side, so there is plenty to dissect and improve on moving forward across all units that took the field.

So without further ado, here are some of the numbers involved in the Steelers preseason loss to the Texans.

-2

The Steelers came in on the wrong side of the turnover margin in their first preseason game of 2024. Muffing a punt in the second quarter after holding the Texans to a three and out deep in their own territory, they gave the ball right back at their own 30 yard line. Their other turnover sealed the game as they were pressing to try to score a late touchdown. Almost as important, a Steelers defense was unable to come up with any takeaways of their own.

4

Losing the turnover battle is one thing, but the Steelers had four fumbles in the game despite only losing one. The two fumbled snaps both contributed to the Steelers first two drives of the game stalling. The other fumble came on a sack in the fourth quarter which helped kill that drive as well.

6

Although the Steelers have been penalized much more than this, six penalties is not the best way to start off the preseason. What’s frustrating is the manner of some of the penalties. The Steelers had a pre-snap penalty for a false start and also had a hold on a kick return.

0/5

During the first half of the game which was the only time when the majority of the starters were on the field, the Steelers were unable to convert a single third down. Going 0 for 5 in the first half, Steelers also went 0 for 1 on fourth down conversions. Things improved somewhat in the second half as the Steelers went 2 for 4 on third down but that merely left them going 2 for 9 for the game.

1.0

With the Steelers defense going up against the Texans starters in the first quarter, they did an excellent job of stopping the run. On four rushing attempts, the Texans only rushed for 4 yards which came to a 1.0 yards per carry (YPC) average. The second quarter saw the Texans rushing for 20 yards on 5 attempts, but the longest run of 7 yards came on a jet sweep. For the entire first half, the Steelers held the Texans to only 2.67 YPC.

50

While the Steelers saw adequate punting in the game, their coverage of punts had a lot to be desired. Of the five punts by Cameron Johnston, which had a gross average of 43.6 yards, the Texans returned three of them for a total of 50 yards. With returns of 18 yards, 22 yards, and 10 yards, one punt return set up the Texans first score of the game. Between these returns and one of the punts being a touchback, the net punting was only 29.6 yards.

13.4

Looking at the first quarter stats when Justin Fields was directing the Steelers offense, the Steelers receivers had an average of 13.4 yards per catch. Of the five receptions, four of them went for at least a 10-yard gain with the only one missing that mark being a 6-yard completion to Pat Freiermuth. Additionally, the only incompletion for the Steelers was another significant chunk play which likely would have been challenged had it been the regular season as it was very close to a catch.

8:54

The Steelers defense did a nice job of keeping the Texans off the field for a lot of the game. But after the Steelers brought the game to within one score in the fourth quarter, they surrendered to drive that only went 56 yards but managed to take 8:54 off of the clock when the Steelers were needing to possess the football. But even after giving up such a lengthy drive from a time perspective, the Steelers did not surrender points as Houston missed a short field goal.

12

With hopes of the Steelers having an improved offense for 2024, coming away with only 12 points in their first preseason game will likely have many in Steelers’ Nation disappointed. What was frustrating is it seemed that the Steelers had the opportunity to put more points on the board but just kept shooting themselves in the foot. With the two drives stalling in large part due to fumbled snaps, the Steelers also turned the ball over on downs at the 2-yard line. But close does not count and the Steelers need to produce a larger number on the scoreboard.

2

In the spot where I usually outline a win or a loss, this is the preseason and the outcome of the game is not nearly as significant. More significant is the health of the team following the contest. Although there may be other injuries that are disclosed later, there were two injuries that were reported immediately following the game. Keeanu Benton left the game early with an injury which hopefully will not affect him long-term. The other injury was to rookie first-round draft pick Troy Fautanu who is dealing with a knee injury. Monitoring these things at this point of the season is much more important than the outcome of the game.

So there are some numbers to help put the Steelers Week 1 preseason loss in perspective. The Steelers’ first units did not get a lot of playing time, but thee was still a lot of knowledge to be gained.

So what numbers from Friday night’s preseason game stand out to you? Please leave your thoughts in the comments below.