The Pittsburgh Steelers have a new offensive coordinator, a new starter at running back, and two young wide receivers. But they have stability where it matters most: quarterback and the offensive line. The rest have gathered around Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown, and the men up front, and have built one of the top offenses in football.
Pending the final results of this week’s games, the Steelers figure to remain a top-five scoring offense. They entered the week averaging 28.5 points scored per game, and put up 33 points yesterday, now averaging 29.1 points per game (the top four teams have been averaging 30 points or more).
As always in today’s NFL, the passing offense has been the primary responsibility in putting the points up on the board, though the rushing game has also been very successful. But when it comes to getting in the end zone through the air, it has almost entirely filtered through Brown, who (again, pending the final results for Week Eight) leads the league with eight receiving touchdowns after scoring another two against the Cleveland Browns.
His eight receiving touchdowns in 16 games puts him on pace to score 18 over a full 16-game season, which would not just set but shatter the franchise record—which he just so happens to own already. His 13 receiving touchdowns in 2014 are the most in a season in team history. He also is the latest of four Steelers for the second-most in a season with 12, shared by Hines Ward, Louis Lipps, and Buddy Dial.
Sunday was the second time this season in which he has recorded at least two receiving touchdowns in the same game, and he has also scored in five of the team’s first seven games. He has a touchdown in five consecutive games now, becoming just the fifth player in team history to do that. He can tie Dial and Ron Shanklin for second if he catches another one next week, but he will need to run his streak up to 11 games in order to tie Dial’s team record, set between the 1959 and 1960 seasons.
WR Antonio Brown (@AB84) now has a touchdown catch in five straight games, setting a personal best streak.
His five-game touchdown catch streak is tied as the 4th-longest in #Steelers history (Buddy Dial: 11, Ron Shanklin: 6, Buddy Dial: 6 and Jimmy Orr: 5).
— Dom Rinelli (@drinelli) October 28, 2018
With his two-touchdown game, Brown also passed Hines Ward for the most games in a career with multiple receiving touchdowns, the 16th time that he has done that in his career. He most recently had two against the Atlanta Falcons. He accomplished the feat four times during the 2014 season, when he set the franchise record of 13 receiving touchdowns for a single season.
With his second touchdown catch today, WR Antonio Brown (@AB84) has recorded the 16th multi-touchdown catch game of his #NFL career, breaking a tie with Hines Ward (15) for the most such games in team history.
— Dom Rinelli (@drinelli) October 28, 2018
Brown became the first Steeler in team history to record double-digit touchdowns in three consecutive seasons through the air from 2014 through 2016, just missing the mark last season with nine after he suffered an injury that caused him to miss the final two and a half games, but he is well on his way toward returning to double-digit scoring this year.
As if that were not enough, with eight touchdowns through seven games, Brown also tied the team record for the most in that span, a record surprisingly owned by Jim Smith, who caught eight of his nine touchdowns during the 1980 season in the first seven games. He only played 12 games that year but scored only one more over his final five games.
Antonio Brown (@AB84) has caught eight touchdowns in the first seven games of the 2018 season, tying Jim Smith (1980) for the most touchdown receptions by a #Steelers player in the first seven games of a season.
— Dom Rinelli (@drinelli) October 28, 2018
