Following every game last year, we did a brief numbers crunch, examining each game from a quirky statistical standpoint. With Week One of this year looming, we’ll introduce it again with some big-picture stats to follow throughout the season.
– Mike Tomlin will have to go 8-8 in the regular season in order to maintain the highest win percentage in Pittsburgh Steelers history. Tomlin sits at 64.1%. Bill Cowher is second at 62.3%.
– Ben Roethlisberger needs 24 touchdowns to surpass Vinny Testarverde for 10th all –time though competing with Eli Manning and Philip Rivers, who are ahead. Roethlisberger has 251 in his career.
He needs 943 yards to achieve 40,000 in his career, becoming only the 16th QB in league history to do so. He should move into 12th place on the all-time list if he can throw for at least 4,000 yards. In two years, he’ll land in the top ten.
Roethlisberger also needs just 46 attempts for 5,000 in his career. Terry Bradshaw never even broke 4,000.
If he’s sacked 40 times, he’ll pass Warren Moon for 7th all-time. Roethlisberger has been brought down 419 times in his career. The next highest of any active player on that list is Tom Brady’s 364. The next player on the list who is younger than Roethlisberger is Alex Smith, in 48th place with 280 times sacked.
– Le’Veon Bell needs 61 receptions and 804 yards to rank fourth in each category for running backs in their first three seasons. He’d pass Herschel Walker in each category.
– Antonio Brown is 760 yards shy of passing Louis Lipps for fourth on the franchise receiving yards mark. He could also surpass Heath Miller for third. Brown sits at 5,259 while Miller has 6,034. Two AB touchdown dances will place him in the top ten in team history.
If AB can somehow replicate his 2014 number of 1,600+ yards, he’d join Calvin Johnson as the only receivers in history to accomplish that in consecutive years. Even if Brown only has 1,500, he’d become just the fourth wide receiver to do it.
– Should Will Johnson actually carry the ball tomorrow and gain positive yards, it’ll be his first time since November 4th, 2012.
– As you are probably already aware, James Harrison needs eight sacks to become the Steelers’ all-time sacks leader, passing Jason Gildon.
– Officially, Lawrence Timmons needs just two more sacks to become the second non 3-4 OLB in franchise history to reach 30. James Farrior is the other.
– A reminder the Steelers’ safeties are still looking for their first interception since Week 14 of the 2013 season. They were the only team not to record one last season.
