Wow, what an emotional past two weeks. Deepest depths of the Earth last week, Cloud 9 today. Weird. Just like these stats.
– We were this close away from my favorite stat. Had the Kansas City Chiefs not scored with four seconds left, we would’ve gone from the biggest loss ever under Mike Tomlin (31 points) to the biggest win ever under him (36). Alas, it wasn’t to be.
– Still, their 43 points tied for the third most at home under Tomlin. The other four games (two more than 43, two of 43) have all come in the last two seasons. Two of them were on Sunday night. Now it’s three.
– Ben Roethlisberger is the first QB since Tom Brady in October 2014 to have a five incompletion, five TD day. It’s the second time Ben has done it in his career, throwing just three incomplete in a 2007 win over the Baltimore Ravens.
Only seven different quarterbacks have accomplished this since 2000. Ben is the only Steeler to ever do it.
– Le’Veon Bell averaged 8 yards per carry tonight. That’s the best mark of any Steelers’ running back with at least 15 carries since Willie Parker in 2006.
– Pittsburgh had five completions of 25+ yards tonight.
– This is the first time four different Steelers’ caught a TD pass in a 4-5 touchdown pass game (doesn’t count 6 TD games) since 2011 against the Tennessee Titans.
– The Steelers’ 22 first quarter points is the most they’ve had in franchise history.
– But the 29 points they had at halftime tonight makes it three straight seasons they’ve done so. They had only done it three times from 1998-2013.
– Sammie Coates is the big-play threat but he led the Steelers with six catches tonight. It’s his first six catch game since December 7th, 2013 when he was at Auburn. It was the only six catch game of his career.
– David Johnson’s 26 yard reception tonight was the second longest of his NFL career. His long is a 32 yard gain with Pittsburgh in 2013.
– Antonio Brown is the first Steelers’ receiver to catch no more than four passes for at least 60 yards and two touchdowns since Mike Wallace’s 3/100/2 stat line in 2010.
It’s the first time in the NFL Brown had two touchdowns on no more than four grabs.
– Cam Heyward was credited with three sacks tonight. He’s the first player not-named James Harrison to do that since Joey Porter in 2005 and the first Steelers’ defensive linemen to do so since Kimo von Oelhoffen in 2003. He did it twice. The pair are the only Steelers’ DL to do so since 1995.
– It’s also the first time since November 24th, 2013 the Steelers have registered at least four sacks in a game with none of them being recorded by an outside linebacker.
In that game, a win over the Cleveland Browns, Troy Polamalu, Al Woods, Heyward, and William Gay all had sacks.
– Jordan Dangerfield recorded his first defensive tackle in meaningful game since November 10th, 2012, when his college team of Towson beat Rhode Island 41-10. He’s come a long way.
– This is the first 43-14 box score league-wide since 2009 and only the third since 1988.
The Chiefs are involved in their third 43-14 final score since 1987. They’ve lost all three of those games.
– The Steelers begin the year 3-1 for the first time since 2010.
