Steelers boasts second-best point differential in the NFL entering Week 7

The Pittsburgh Steelers are clicking on both sides of the ball. Here’s why having the league’s best point differential should translate to success.

It’s hard to argue about the way that things have turned out so far for the Steelers. Sure their bye week was essentially stolen from them and they ran into a bit of back luck losing Devin Bush for the season with a torn ACL, but the team as a whole is on track to do great things in 2020.

Quite possibly the main reason for their success is an incredible point differential. While it might have taken the Steelers until Week 5 to reach their first 30-point game of the season on offense, this team is currently firing on all cylinders. According to Team Rankings, Pittsburgh has the second-best point differential in the league so far this year:

Allowing under 19 points per game on defense is something we have almost come to expect from this team. Though other organizations would kill to be able to have a defense that allowed under 20 points per contest, Steelers fans have grown used to this.

T.J. Watt and Stephon Tuitt are on track to have All-Pro seasons in 2020, while players like Bud Dupree, Cameron Heyward, and Tyson Alualu are chipping in with big contributions.

Remarkably, the Steelers have somehow been able to top 31 points per contest with a 38-year-old Ben Roethlisberger. It’s even more surprising when you consider that Diontae Johnson has been banged up most of the season so far and JuJu Smith-Schuster has hardly been involved on offense.

While some of the credit admittedly goes to their weak strength of schedule, some Steelers offense players deserve big praise. For starters, Chase Claypool has been phenomenal. His ability to win at the catch point and separate down the field have already made him a nightmare to opposing defensive backs.

In addition, players like Kevin Dotson, Chukwuma Okorafor, and James Conner have drastically outplayed early expectations, as Pittsburgh remarkably has the 9th-best rushing offense despite missing David DeCastro and Zach Banner for most of Pittsburgh’s first 5 games.

Why Steelers point differential is so important

It doesn’t matter much if Pittsburgh held teams to under 19 points per game if their offense was below average. Last year was a perfect example of this. Though the Steelers surrendered just 18.9 points per game in 2019, they had a negative point differential of -0.8. In the same way, it won’t be a recipe for success if a team can score 30 points per game if they allow just as much in return.

Fortunately, the Steelers are currently +12.4 per game in point differential. This is a mark that is currently only behind the Baltimore Ravens (+12.5). When a team is able to boast a point differential of this magnitude, it almost assuredly results in a playoff berth. This should be the case for Pittsburgh in 2020.

The Steelers may not be able to keep up this point differential throughout the season, but both their offense and defense have given us plenty of reason for confidence moving forward. Let’s hope they can maintain this as the season goes on.