As OTAs conclude and we move into mandatory mini-camp, I’m excited to introduce a new series that I’ll be writing looking at some of the most unique feats in Steelers’ history. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be ranking the ten most unbreakable Steelers records, two at a time.
A few things to note before I get into the top ten. While a lot of these records are NFL records, we are only looking at them in the context of the Pittsburgh Steelers and how likely a Steeler would be to break the specified mark. While no record on this list is truly ‘unbreakable,’ I would have a hard time envisioning anyone breaking any of these any time soon. We will start at ten, and work our way up to what I consider the Steelers’ most unbreakable record of all-time.
#10: A 56-Point Win Margin In A Game
Our first record takes us all the way back to 1952 when on November 30th the Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the New York Giants 63-7. There are a few interesting things to note about this game. One is how random this blowout win really was. You would expect the Steelers to have a far superior roster to the Giants to be able to administer a beatdown this drastic, but that was not the case. Pittsburgh came into the game 3-6 compared to New York’s 6-3 and were actually 7.5 point underdogs in the contest.
Right from the jump, the Steelers took a lead, as halfback Lynn Chandnois returned the opening kick 91 yards for a touchdown. Pittsburgh turned this into a 28-0 game at halftime, but they didn’t stop there. Despite pulling starting quarterback Jim Finks for the backup quarterback and starting kicker Gary Kerkorian midway through the fourth quarter, they scored four touchdowns in the quarter to take them to the final score of 63-7.
Another fun fact from this game is that the Giants’ only touchdown was scored via a pass from future Cowboys legend Tom Landry. Despite Landry scoring that touchdown, he had a brutal day, going 4-25 with a single touchdown versus four interceptions. One of their other quarterbacks Fred Benners didn’t fair much better, going 3-7 with three interceptions of his own, as the Steelers’ defense dominated the game.
How would it be broken?
The reason this comes in at number ten on the list is that there is a world in which it could be broken. However, among the entire NFL, its been bested just twice since 1977. The Patriots won 59-0 over Tennessee in 2009 and Seattle won 58-0 over Arizona in 2012. However, the Steelers have never really been a team to run up the score on their opponents They have capped out with a 45-point win (45-0 over Kansas City in 1976) in the Super Bowl Era and a relatively meager 35-point win (45-10 over Indy in 2015) in the Tomlin Era. This is one of those records the team would probably need to go out of their way to break.
#9: Back-to-Back 6-Touchdown Games for Big Ben
In the middle of the 2014 season, former Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger achieved a feat that has never been duplicated before or since: two consecutive games with six touchdown passes.
Roethlisberger led the Steelers to two wins in Weeks 8 and 9, 51-34 over Indy and 43-23 over Baltimore respectively. This was in the middle of arguably his best statistical season ever, where he led the league with just shy of five thousand passing yards and threw only nine interceptions. If we wanted to get technical, we could make this record even more unbreakable by requiring someone to match his 862 passing yards and zero interceptions over the two games.
However, I would argue we don’t even have to add that caveat. In the age of high-flying offenses and gaudy fantasy scores, I would have expected the six-touchdown game to be fairly achievable for the elite signal callers of the league, but it has happened remarkably few times. In fact, just four players besides Ben have had multiple six-touchdown games in their entire careers, in the Super Bowl Era. That list is Patrick Mahomes, Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, and Peyton Manning. None of them have three such games, including Roethlisberger.
Even recently, six has been a magic number that’s tough to touch. In the last four seasons, the only player to have such a game is Miami’s Tua Tagovailoa, who did so last year. In fact, the only active players on rosters (sorry Nick Foles) to have done this are Mahomes, Tagovailoa, and Pittsburgh’s own Mitch Trubisky.
In the context of the Steelers, sophomore quarterback Kenny Pickett threw just seven touchdowns all of last season and hasn’t had a multi-touchdown game yet. While I expect that to change in 2023, it seems like Ben’s record is safe, at least for now.
How would it be broken?
The reason this record isn’t higher is exactly the reason I pointed out earlier, passing is still on the rise. It’s not totally inconceivable to see a team like the Chiefs or Bills get into back-to-back shootouts and have Mahomes or Josh Allen at least flirt with the record, but as excited as I am for Kenny Pickett’s sophomore season, I would be surprised if he puts up numbers anywhere near this. However, the fact that you wouldn’t be totally shocked to see a six-touchdown game on NFL RedZone this season makes this record at least feasible to break, which can’t be said for the records above it on the list.
