If someone were to have told me back in September that the Pittsburgh Steelers would still have a chance to make the post season in Week 17, I would be pleasantly surprised and pleased. Somehow though, the Steelers are in that very same situation but it does not feel as rewarding as it should. That is likely because the Steelers had more than a chance two weeks ago, they were in the driver seat and opted to step out. While they no longer control their own destiny, the Steelers can improve their playoff chances by defeating the Baltimore Ravens. Here are all the stats that will shape this Sunday’s season finale.
10.9 – Devlin Hodges went from hero to zero pretty quickly. After spreading his wings over the city of Pittsburgh, Duck has flown this team straight into the ground over the last two weeks. Hodges has thrown 55 passes over the last two weeks and six of them have been intercepted. Anytime a quarterback is throwing interceptions on over 10-percent of his passes, which Hodges currently is doing over the last two weeks (10.9%), there is a good chance that their team is in bad shape. Describing the Steelers as being in bad shape would still be an understatement as the team went from possibly moving into the fifth seed to potentially missing the post season in a two-week span.
60.8 – The roles were reversed the last time Robert Griffin III started against the Steelers. During the 2016 season finale, it was the Steelers resting their starters as Griffin and the Cleveland Browns came to visit Heinz Field. Now, Griffin and a resting Ravens’ squad will welcome a traveling Steelers’ squad looking to continue their season. Griffin has made two starts against the Steelers during his career but he has not had much success completing just 60.8-percent of his passes while being sacked five times. Those two starts came during his tenure with the Browns and Washington Redskins. It will be a much tougher matchup this time as Griffin leads a very talented Ravens’ team.
72.4 – The Steelers managed to come within a field goal from defeating the Ravens the last time these two teams played but now months later, these are two very different teams. Though the Ravens will be resting many starters, this is still a dangerous team, especially on the defensive side of the ball, an area where the Ravens have taken huge strides in. Since the last time these two teams met, the Steelers have held opposing quarterbacks to a passer rating of 75.3, third best in the NFL. The only two defenses that have done better? The Patriots and the Ravens. Since week six, the Ravens have held opposing quarterbacks to a passer rating of 72.4 as they have rounded into one of the most dangerous secondaries in the NFL.
400 – Four teams this season have failed to hit the 400-yards of offense mark in a game this season. To no one’s surprise, the Steelers are one of those four teams. The Steelers have not just struggled in one phase of the game either as both their passing and running game have struggled highly this season. The Steelers and the Buffalo Bills are the only two teams in the league who have not hit 300-yards passing in a game this season. The 100-yards rushing benchmark has also not come easy as the Steelers have failed to hit that mark in 10 of their 15 games this season. Excuse my lack of descriptive vocabulary but the Steelers offense has been very offensive at times this season.
4333 – Lamar Jackson will not suit up this Sunday but here is a cray stat to sit on. The Steelers have put 4260 total yards of offense this season. Jackson has put up 4333 yards himself. The dual threat quarterback has thrown for 3127 passing yards this season while rushing for 1206 yards. The Steelers did a good job containing Jackson last time the two teams met but regardless they should consider themselves lucky that they will not have to deal with the NFL’s leading MVP candidate this Sunday.
