Last season I decided to switch up how I report the grades by Pro Football Focus (PFF) because of my frustration due to the absurdity of their findings. Instead of listing out all the scores, I gave highlights of some of the highs and lows and whether or not I thought their grading passed my own eye test. Since it seemed to be the most receptive approach, I decided to make this a weekly thing where I give my opinion of the PFF scores.

As always has to be the case when PFF is mentioned, the disclaimer is these grades are subjective and merely the opinion of those doing the evaluation. While PFF looks at every player on every snap, they are still simply forming an opinion of what they believe that player was supposed to be doing that play in order to determine if they were successful or not.

So here are my overall impressions of the scores from the Steelers Week 12 loss to the Browns with my grade of PFF at the end.

Offense

I’m not sure how Steelers fans will react to this, but the top score on the offense for the Steelers against the Browns was quarterback Russell Wilson with a 79.9 overall. Wilson had a 77.3 passing score along with a 66.9 running score. Not far behind Wilson was Pat Freiermuth with a 79.0 based on a team-high 79.3 passing score, a 68.8 pass blocking score, but only a 54.8 run blocking score.

There were two other players who scored above a 70.0 in Calvin Austin (76.2) and Van Jefferson (75.5). Both of their scores were based off of passing scores in the 70s which were only behind that of Wilson and Fairmouth.

The bottom score on the offense, by a large margin, was Connor Heyward with a 29.8 overall. Heyward did not have that low of individual scores as he had a 55.3 passing score, a 65.6 pass blocking score, and a 55.6 run blocking score. But he did have two penalties called on him. Was that enough to make a score that low?

There were no other scores on the Steelers offense below a 50.0, but two were fairly close. Both Cordarrelle Patterson and Mason McCormick each had a 50.8 overall score. These score were very curious as Patterson’s scores for passing (57.2), running (60.0), and run blocking (58.6), were not really significantly lower than the 60.0 standard to make him drop so low. The same was true for McCormick as he had the second-highest pass blocking grade for the Steelers with a 75.7, but a team-low run blocking score of 44.4 brought him down, although I think that was a little bit farther than it should have taken him down.

What might be a surprise for Steelers fans was the top grade for any offensive lineman belonged to Brock Jones with a 69.3 overall. Jones had a 67.1 pass blocking grade based on giving up three total pressures in the form of two quarterback hits and one hurry. Jones also had a 67.8 run blocking grade that was second only behind Zach Frazier (72.5). Speaking of Frazier, he had a 61.8 overall score because he had a team-low 20.3 pass blocking score from giving up one sack and three hurries.

Other notable scores on the offense were Jaylen Warren (68.7), Najee Harris (68.2), and George Pickens (66.7). Dan Moore Jr. actually had a 68.8 pass blocking grade and was credited with giving up two sacks but only had a 49.1 run blocking grade for a 58.2 overall grade.

Defense

The top score on defense for the Steelers this week belonged to Nick Herbig with a 93.1 overall based on a team-high 94.6 pass rushing score. Although it was a high overall score, Herbig only had a 69.8 run defense score, 63.8 coverage score, and a 29.2 tackling score as he was assessed with two missed tackles.

There were no other Steelers defenders in the 80s, but four other players did score in the 70s. Payton Wilson just missed hitting the 80.0 mark as he had a 79.7 overall score based on a 76.4 coverage score, a 68.7 run defense score, and a 77.7 tackling score. Believe it or not, T.J. Watt was next with a 76.0 overall based on a 70.4 pass rush score, a 69.0 run defense score, and 73.2 tackling score.

Cam Hayward had a 75.1 overall score based on an 89.2 pass rushing score which was only behind Nick Herbig. Heyward had a 52.7 run defense score and a 71.0 tackling score. The final player above a 70.0 was Larry Ogunjobi with a 72.1 overall, but his overall score doesn’t exactly mesh with his individual ones. Ogunjobi had a 69.8 run defense score, 63.7 pass rush score, and only a 30.0 tackling score.

The bottom of the list saw four players below a 50.0. Keeanu Benton was at the bottom with a 38.9 overall based on a 60.0 pass rushing score and a 35.7 run defense score. Dean Lowry was next with a 46.2 overall based on a 77.1 pass rush score but a 36.7 run defense score.

Joey Porter Jr. only had a 46.3 overall score despite having 70.3 run defense score and a team-high 80.1 tackling score. But it was Porter’s team-low 39.4 coverage score which brought him down based on where he was credited with giving up five receptions on five targets for 52 yards.

The final score below a 50.0 belonged to Minkah Fitzpatrick with a 48.2 overall. Fitzpatrick had a 48.4 coverage score, 35.5 tackling score, a 58.7 pass rushing score, and a 60.9 run defense score.

Some other notable overall scores were DeShon Elliott (69.0), Beanie Bishop (68.5), and Patrick Queen (66.7). Queen had the highest run defense score in the game of a 75.2 where Bishop had the top coverage score of 79.1.

Overall

Just to point it out again, Chris Boswell‘s field goal score doesn’t make a lot of sense. He was given a 56.0 score because he missed a 58-yard field goal. Yet last week the kicker for Dallas missed a 40-yard field goal but still had a score in the 90s. It just doesn’t make sense how a miss from that length would bring a score down so much.

Overall, the scores weren’t egregiously off, but the sum of their parts didn’t make sense. I did find Connor Heyward’s overall score to be very low compared to the individual parts. The same was true for Cordarrelle Patterson, but not nearly to the degree of Heyward. I also don’t know why Mason McCormick’s high pass blocking score did not help him more compared to his low run blocking score. Merely averaging the two would’ve put him at a 60.0 instead of a 50.8, and he actually played more pass blocking snaps. Yet when looking at Zach Frazier, his great run blocking score affected him much more than his extremely low pass blocking score. If his two were averaged he would have had a 46.4 overall but instead was given a grade of 61.8. I’m not sure why the run blocking is carrying more weight than the pass blocking for some but not others as Dan Moore had an overall score within one point of the average of his two blocking scores.

The defensive scores were a little curious as I was surprised to see Nick Herbie in the 90s. It’s not that he played a bad game, just that he didn’t stand out in a huge way outside of the strip sack. I was also surprised TJ watch scored as hard as he did PFF loves to bring him down as much as they can. In a game where the Steelers only had one sack, it’s surprising their edge rushers graded out so high. Also, Larry Ogunjobi’s overall score seemed high compared to each category.

I’m not going to say the scores were done poorly, but I will say they were a number of them that didn’t make a lot of sense based on the individual categories. And the Boswell score bothers me.

My grade of this week’s PFF scores: C-