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.
9.15 Percent
The percentage of the time Cincinnati Bengals RB Joe Mixon sees eight or more defenders in the box this season, the fifth-lowest in the NFL. That’s likely to change now that QB Joe Burrow is out for the season. With backup QB Jake Browning making his first start, Pittsburgh’s mission will zero in on stopping Mixon and making Browning make enough plays to lead the Bengals to victory.
Joe Mixon’s time seeing eight or more in the box (fifth lowest)
42
For the Bengals, their lowest combined scoring output in their last four games. In three of them, they and their opponent combined for at least 50 points. They’ve been scoring and they’ve been giving up points. With Burrow done, can they keep putting up points? And will their defense dig in deep to make plays, knowing the pressure and weight of the team have been shifted to them?
After just 23 combined points last week, the Steelers might be playing the Bengals in a race to hit 20. Whichever team does it has a good chance to win.
The lowest combined scoring in the team’s last four games. Over 50 in three of four. Will these two teams hit that mark?
Seven
The number of touchdown passes Pittsburgh has thrown on the season. With the New York Jets tossing one in yesterday’s Black Friday game against Miami, the Steelers are now tied with them for the fewest in 2023. Dating back to 2022, only once has an individual Steelers QB thrown more than one touchdown pass in a game. That was Kenny Pickett in Week Three against the Las Vegas Raiders (there have been other games where combined, the Steelers tossed at least two). Sure would be nice to take advantage of a Bengals’ secondary without top corner Cam Taylor-Britt but we’ve had the same feeling before against other teams and come up empty.
Eight
The combined number of receptions WRs Allen Robinson and Calvin Austin III have since the team’s Week Six bye, a span of five games. Robinson has five, and Austin has three. Robinson brings value as a blocker and made a couple of tough catches on third down but he’s mostly running empty routes out on the field. Pittsburgh has had no idea how or where to use Austin since Johnson returned healthy.
Pittsburgh needs a plan for those guys. Not that they need to get the ball a lot, Diontae Johnson and George Pickens are the playmakers and TE Pat Freiermuth needs to see the ball more over the middle, but these guys can’t have so much volume and so little substance. On a per-route basis, it’s hard to find two less productive NFL receivers.
2.2, 5.0
George Pickens separation + cushion (next to last, next to last)
Per NextGenStats, those numbers equate to the yards of separation and the cushion Pickens has on a per-snap basis. Both are next-to-last among qualifiers. Only Michael Thomas generates less separation and Josh Reynolds has a worse cushion metrics. Meaning, that Pickens isn’t separating much and DBs aren’t giving him much of a cushion. It makes him a pretty covered target, even if his ace card is winning contested as well as any receiver in football. While his route running and route tree have improved, it’d be nice to see these numbers trend upwardly over the final seven games.
