More Pittsburgh Steelers wins. More stats of the weird.
– With 107 yards against the Los Angeles Rams, WR George Pickens has the first back-to-back 100-yard receiving game of his NFL career. It only happened once in college at the end of his 2020 season against Missouri and Cincinnati.
He is the first Steelers wide receiver to do so since Diontae Johnson in Weeks 10 and 11 of the 2020 season. Over the last five seasons, 2019-2023, they’re the only two Steelers who have done it.
– Pittsburgh went the first five games of the season without a rushing touchdown, a franchise record drought to begin a year. So naturally they rushed for three touchdowns yesterday.
– With 11 more tackles Sunday, FS Minkah Fitzpatrick has 52 through six games. He’s on pace to finish the year with 147, which would break the Steelers’ single-season mark of 141 (set by LB James Farrior in 2003) since tackles have been tracked in 1987.
Per Pro Football Reference, if Fitzpatrick finishes with 147, it’ll tie the most by a defensive back since 2000, matching Jalen Pitre (2022) and Budda Baker (2019). The last defensive back who had more was the late Pat Tillman in 2000.
– Over its last two games, Pittsburgh has scored 13 points across the first three quarters. They’ve scored 28 points in the fourth quarter, 14 points in wins over the Baltimore Ravens and Los Angeles Rams.
– Steelers QB Kenny Pickett officially finished the game with eight carries for zero yards and a touchdown, in large part due to his three end-of-game kneel downs. Still, a late-career Jerome Bettis stat line if I ever saw one. But Pickett is the only the second player in team history with such a line, at least eight carries for zero positive yardage but a touchdown. The only other was RB Frenchy Fuqua, who had nine carries for zero yards and a touchdown in a 38-16 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Oct. 18, 1971.
The last player to do it in the NFL was New England Patriots RB Sammy Morris in 2008 with an identical stat line. Before that, it was QB Kerry Collins in 1995. Pickett is only the sixth post-merger example.
Despite Pickett finishing the game with zero yards, he had three rushing first downs thanks to his QB sneaks.
– With his 53-yard field goal, Chris Boswell has made 28 field goals of 50-plus yards in his career. That’s more than every other kicker in Steelers’ history, who have a combined 27.
– Here’s a wild one. The Steelers are 4-2 on the season. But they have not had more:
1. Plays From Scrimmage
2. Total Yardage
3. First Downs
than their opponent in any of those six games. On paper, they have been outproduced in every single game. And yet here they are, two games above .500 and on the Baltimore Ravens’ heels for first place in the division.
– Kenny Pickett’s QB rating through the first three quarters of all his games this season? 75.9.
Kenny Pickett’s QB rating in the fourth quarter of all his games this season? 102.8.
Dude knows how to come up large.
– Nick Herbig’s first NFL sack came on Oct. 22.
Nick Herbig’s first college sack came on Oct. 23.
The week before Halloween is his time to shine.
– Finally, the Steelers are 4-2 through their first six games. The last six seasons they’ve started a season winning at least four of their first six, they’ve made the playoffs. The exception came in 2009. History again says Pittsburgh is heading back to the postseason.
