Maybe some weird will pick your spirits up after a tough Pittsburgh Steelers loss to the Baltimore Ravens. Though, these stats may make you even more sad.
– The Steelers have thrown only nine touchdown passes this year. It’s their fewest through 13 games since 2001. Like that season, only eight came from quarterbacks. In ’01, RB Jerome Bettis threw a TD pass while in 2022, Chase Claypool is responsible for one of those nine.
That ’01 team still managed to finish the year with 16 passing scores, something that feels like a lofty goal for this team the remainder of the season.
– As we’ve been tracking the latter half of the season, WR Diontae Johnson is up to 67 receptions with six more grabs yesterday. As things currently stand, he’s far and away the Steelers “leader” for the most receptions without a TD in a single season. The previous record was Le’Veon Bell’s 45 in 2013 (it’s possible/likely others had more but finally caught a TD later in the year).
The NFL record is 75 set by the Hall of Famer Raymond Berry in 1961. Johnson will end the year with more than 75 receptions so he’ll have to find the end zone over the final four games in order to avoid NFL infamy.
– Only two QBs have come off the bench this year to throw three INTs. Kenny Pickett in Week 4, replacing Mitch Trubisky, and Mitch Trubisky in Week 14, replacing Kenny Pickett.
It’s the first time two Steelers’ quarterbacks have done so in the same year since Mike Tomczak and Jim Miller in 1995.
– Baltimore has rushed for 200+ yards against the Steelers in three of their last five meetings. Finished Sunday with 215.
– Pittsburgh has allowed 333 yards rushing over their last six quarters.
– RB J.K. Dobbins’ 44-yard run is the longest run play the Steelers have allowed this season and the longest since…the last time they met the Ravens when Latavius Murray reeled off a 49-yard TD against them in January.
– Sunday was Mitch Trubisky’s first three-INT game since 2018, a game in which his Bears managed to win over the Los Angeles Rams. No such luck here.
– As we’ve mentioned during the year, the Steelers’ formula is simple. Take care of the ball and they win, turn the ball over and they lose. That remains true. They’re now 5-1 when they don’t turn the ball over at all this season. They’re 0-7 when they turn it over just once, regardless of turnover differential.
– A very silly and meaningless stat. Ravens’ backup QB Anthony Brown is the first UDFA rookie to complete a pass against the Steelers since Taylor Heinicke mopped up a 34-6 Christmas Day loss as a member of the Houston Texans back in 2017. And he turned out pretty good.
A list of recent UDFA QBs to complete passes against Pittsburgh: Heinicke, Thad Lewis (Browns – 2012), Brett Basanez (Panthers – 2006) and Todd Bouman (Vikings – 2001). All of those came in losing efforts.
Brown is the first one to do so in a win since the great Warren Moon in 1984. Of course, his situation was more of an exception after playing his career in the CFL.
The last true rookie to do so against the Steelers is Cleveland’s Dave Mays, who went 5/9 for 70 yards off the bench to help beat Pittsburgh 18-16 in 1976. He replaced Brian Sipe that day.
– I’ve been talking about my concern over the Steelers’ ability to win close games since before the year even began. From 2020 to 2021, the Steelers were a league-best 15-4-1 in one-possession games.
How about in 2022? They’re just 4-5, meaning they’ve lost more one-score games through 13 games of this year than they had in the last two seasons combined.
– Finally, the Steelers have reached eight losses by Week 14 for the first time since 2013. They’ll look to avoid their first losing season since 2003. To do so, they’ll have to run the table and win their next four games.
