Welcome to your weekly Pittsburgh Steelers “stat pack,” five numbers you need to know to get ready for the team’s upcoming game. They could relate to the opponent, the Steelers themselves, and could involve an individual, unit, or something else. All to help you become the smartest fan for gameday.
3.8, 2.1
Those are the yards before and after contact Cleveland Browns RB Nick Chubb had in the team’s Week One win over the Cincinnati Bengals. His 3.8 yards before contact is fourth most of any player with at least ten rushing attempts while his 2.1 yards after contact is third league-wide. Arguably the best pure runner in football, he’s a pile-mover and tough to take down with considerable success against the Steelers.
Now without Cam Heyward, they can’t let Chubb and the Browns’ run game take control of this game as the San Francisco 49ers did last week.
Nine
Sticking with the run game, that’s the number of attempts Pittsburgh Steelers running backs had in Week One. A number far below than the team planned. Of course, game circumstances had plenty to do with it, Pittsburgh playing from behind almost the entire game, and the offense didn’t establish a rhythm. Nine carries won’t get it done this week.
3.21
That was Browns QB Deshaun Watson’s snap-to-throw time in Week One, third-longest in the league only ahead of the New York Jets’ Zach Wilson and Kansas City Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes. Perhaps weather impacted things, there was a heavy rain in Cleveland’s debut, but there’s a chance for Pittsburgh’s pass rush to get home. Last year, they sacked him seven times in a 28-14.
20-0
As Dave Bryan has written about, the Steelers have won their last 20 true Monday night home games, excluding the COVID year against Washington. Their last such loss came in 1991 against the New York Giants. Cleveland hasn’t been able to win in Pittsburgh forever, losers of their last 19 regular season contests on the road (their last win came in 2003), and we’ll see if those streaks can continue after this week wraps up.
1:24
That’s how much time was left in the first half when the Pittsburgh Steelers finally recorded a first down, a Najee Harris 24-yard run. We don’t have an exact stat on it but safe to say, it’s been a long time since that occurred for the Steelers. Maybe for any NFL team. Starting fast has been an issue for years with Pittsburgh and that must be corrected Monday night.
