Slow starts have been a bugaboo for the Pittsburgh Steelers for quite some time, including no opening drive touchdowns on offense in the entire 2024 season. Another facet is zeroing in on Week One opening drives, as Dave Bryan and Alex Kozora went down the rabbit hole in a recent Terrible Podcast, learning Pittsburgh’s last one was way back in 2008.
The goal today is to see how this compares to every NFL offense to gain context.
Here is a visual of Week One opening drive touchdowns since 1999, courtesy of data from nflfastR:
Right away, we get a sense of the Steelers’ gut-wrenching drought of 16 years.