October was quite a month for Pittsburgh Steelers second-year running back James Conner and on Thursday the AFC’s Player of the Week for Week 8 of the 2018 regular season was also named the Player of the Month for the month of October.
In the three games the Steelers played in the month of October, Conner, who was selected in the third-round of the 2017 NFL Draft out of the University of Pittsburgh, rushed for 367 yards and 6 touchdowns on 64 carries, a 5.7 yard per carry average. Conner also had 13 receptions during those three October games for 159 yards, a 12.2 yard average. More importantly, the Steelers won all three of those games against the Atlanta Falcons, Cincinnati Bengals and Cleveland Browns.
In the Steelers win this past Sunday against the Browns, Conner became the first player in the history of the team to rush for at least 100 yards and two touchdowns in three straight games, doing so in the team’s three October games. He also became the first player in the NFL to accomplish such a feat since Chris Johnson did it in 2009.
Conner now enters the month of November tied for first in the NFL with four 100-yard games, as well as tied for first with four multiple rushing touchdown games. He enters Week 9 of the regular season is ranked second overall in the NFL with nine rushing touchdowns and third in rushing yardage with 599, while he is fourth with 922 total yards from scrimmage. He leads the AFC in rushing yards and yards from scrimmage.
Fellow running back Le’Veon Bell was the last Steelers player to win the AFC Player of the Month award as he did so in December of last season and also in December of 2016.
