Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown continues to run like clockwork, adding an additional seven receptions, 72 yards, and one touchdown to his 2014 resume against the Kansas City Chiefs yesterday afternoon.
On the year, Brown now has 122 receptions, 1570 receiving yards, and 12 touchdown receptions, all of which are franchise records, outright in the case of the former two. With one more touchdown reception in the season finale, Brown could be the outright holder of all three key receiving statistics records for the Steelers.
On the year, Brown has caught at least five passes for at least 70 yards—72 is actually a season-low—in every game. Only two games out of 15 have produced less than seven receptions, while 12 of his 15 games have produced at least 90 yards.
There’s now little doubt that Brown has had the best season that a Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver has ever had, and now he is approaching the upper echelon of all-time great seasons by wide receivers.
With just 17 yards in the season finale, Brown should become the first receiver in franchise history to average at least 100 yards from scrimmage per game, when factoring in the 13 rushing yards that he has on four carries. No non-running back has ever accomplished that feat.
In terms of consistency, Brown is simply breaking the mold. There’s nobody else that has ever put together such numbers with such consistency over the course of a two-year period as Brown has, without a blip or two along the way. There has been no such bump in the road this time.
Over the span of the past two years, keeping in mind that there is yet one game to play, Brown has totaled 232 receptions for 3069 yards and 20 touchdowns, averaging 13.2 yards per reception.
Of course, it would be helpful if Brown had one more of those spectacularly consistent regular season games left in him as the Steelers look to clinch not only the division title in the season finale, but also the third seed in the postseason.
And then, of course, he must continue what he has been doing beyond the 16-game regular season schedule, which is not something he has been able to do often enough.
While the Steelers made the postseason in his first two years in the league—they even made the playoffs in his rookie year, and he made a big catch against the Ravens to help win that game—Pittsburgh has been in a playoff brought the last two years. Brown has only been able to show off his skills at regular season speed. He will need to shine on the bigger stage in the postseason in a couple weeks.
