It was a good night for the Pittsburgh Steelers, who put up a whole bunch of points against the Carolina Panthers. In fact, they put up over 50 points for the first time in years in an effort to which all three phases of the game contributed, the defense scoring a touchdown and the special teams unit providing a short field.
In fact, it was such a good day that Joshua Dobbs ended up playing most of the fourth quarter, with Ben Roethlisberger watching him from the sidelines following a ‘perfect’ game, over 300 passing yards and five touchdown passes to nine different targets.
Their 52 points scored on the night was the most that the Steelers have managed since matching that number back in 1984. The only time between then and now that they had ever put up 50 points was in 2014 when they scored 51 points against the Indianapolis Colts.
It was the seventh game overall (since 1950) that the Steelers scored at least 50 points in a game, according to Pro Football Reference, with their team record coming in 1953 when they scored 63 points against the New York Giants. It was the only time they scored at least 60 in a game.
Every touchdown on the night came from a different player for the Steelers, with Roethlisberger completing touchdown passes to JuJu Smith-Schuster, Antonio Brown, Jesse James, Vance McDonald, and Jaylen Samuels. James Conner also scored on the ground, while Vince Williams defensively recorded an interception for a touchdown as well, the second interception of his career.
To put them over the 50-point mark, Chris Boswell also hit from 50 yards out, his longest field goal of the season, and he even made all of his extra point attempts, which this year has actually become a big deal.
It was the Steelers’ fifth straight victory, however, and they have been averaging well over 30 points per game in that span. They were already at that point before almost doubling it on the night, and the keys toward that success has been excellent play on third down and in the red zone. They scored on all four of their trips into the red zone, now the best team in the league in that regard.
Had the game actually been competitive, they would have continued to try to score at the end of the game, but their only goal with 10-plus minutes to play was just to run out the clock, at that time already working with a 38-point lead with Dobbs, Samuels, Stevan Ridley, B.J. Finney, Chukwuma Okorafor, Xavier Grimble, and Darrius Heyward-Bey getting work.
The Steelers now have 10 days to rest up ahead of a game on the road against the Jacksonville Jaguars, who beat them in Pittsburgh twice last season. But the Jaguars are not the same team they were a year ago. And the Steelers have also not lost on the road since Week Three of 2017.
