Good stats! Weird stats! It’s refreshing. Let’s take it all in.
– Let’s get the big one out of the way. Pittsburgh registered its first 400-yard game since Week Two of the 2020 season, breaking a streak of 58 games without one, the league’s second-longest streak of the last 30 years. Only the 2005-2010 Oakland Raiders went longer.
The 421 yards are the most the Steelers have had since Week 16 of 2018 when they posted 429 in a loss to the New Orleans Saints. Pittsburgh hasn’t had this many yards in a win since the same year against the Carolina Panthers, a 52-21 blowout win on Thursday Night Football.
Meaning, in 44 games under Matt Canada, they never had 400-plus yards. In the first game without him, they achieved it.
– For the first time all season, the Steelers had:
– More yards than their opponent
– More plays than their opponent
And it’s just the third time they won the time-of-possession battle and the second time they had more first downs than their opponent. Everything’s coming up aces for these Steelers.
– Talk about a balanced offense. The Steelers had 33 pass attempts. They had 33 rush attempts.
– Entering Week 12, Pittsburgh was tied the New York Jets for the second-most three-and-outs in the league this year (defined as exactly three plays followed by a punt). Only the New York Giants, 45, had more. The Steelers had at least two three-and-outs in every game on the season. Sunday against the Bengals? They had zero.
In Matt Canada’s 44 games as offensive coordinator, Pittsburgh only had two games without a three-and-out drive. Last year in Week 17 against the Baltimore Ravens and in 2021, its Week 16 game against the Kansas City Chiefs.
– QB Kenny Pickett’s 278 yards passing were a season-high and second-most of his NFL career. The only time had more was as a rookie when he threw for 327 in a blowout loss to the Buffalo Bills, racking up garbage time stats. No such case here.
– Pickett has now gone seven straight games without an interception, the first quarterback in team history to have such a streak, breaking a tie with Bubby Brister.
In NFL history, only 15 different quarterbacks have had this kind of streak (it’s been done 20 times, including four separate instances by Aaron Rodgers). The most recent was the Detroit Lions’ Jared Goff last season while Tom Brady also had such a streak during the middle of 2022. If Pickett can make it eight straight, it’ll be only the 14th instance in history.
Brady holds the NFL record in a single season, 11-straight games in 2010. In theory, Pickett could break that mark this year if he can stay interception-less through Week 17 against Seattle.
– TE Pat Freiermuth had a banner day. His nine receptions and 120 yards were both career highs. It was the first 100-plus yard performance of his NFL career while the nine grabs are more than he had at Penn State or in Pittsburgh. All three of his 100-yard games, college or pro, have come in the month of November. That’s his month.
Freiermuth is the first Steelers tight end to have 100 or more yards in a game since Vance McDonald had 112 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2018, the famous “stiff-arm” play for a touchdown.
– Freiermuth’s 120 yards are more than Heath Miller had in any game in his long and great NFL career. And sure, Freiermuth plays in a different era but it’s not like the Steelers’ passing game had been approximating a modern offense.
– Finally, Freiermuth’s nine catches are the most by a Steelers tight end since Jesse James had 10 in 2017 in the 2017 Steelers’ thrilling 39-38 win over the Baltimore Ravens.
– Najee Harris’ 6.6 yards per carry is the second-highest single-game average of his NFL career, only bested by his 6.7 mark at the end of his rookie year against the Cleveland Browns.
– Let’s talk about a streak that just ended. Jaylen Warren averaged only 3.9 yards per carry Sunday, breaking a three-game streak of having at least nine carries while averaging at least six yards per carry. That makes him one of three Steelers to do so in a single season, joining Franco Harris and Frenchy Fuqua, who both did so in 1972.
– With 153 yards against the Bengals, Pittsburgh has rushed for 150-plus yards in four-straight games. That’s something they haven’t done in a single-season since 2004, Ben Roethlisberger’s rookie year. Since 1978, they’ve now only done it three times (2001, 2004, and 2023). The Steelers haven’t done it five straight games since 1977. They’ll get a chance to match that mark next Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals, who were just rolled for 228 yards on the ground to the Los Angeles Rams.
– Sunday, Pittsburgh had four completions of 20 or more yards. They had three of them over their previous four games.
– With a two-sack performance, and potentially another half-sack coming after appearing to split one with Cam Heyward, T.J. Watt’s 13.5 sacks again put him in the league lead heading into the Monday Night game (where Minnesota’s Danielle Hunter could grab it back). He’s now on pace to finish the year with 20.5 sacks.
– Watt is the first NFL player with at least 13.5 sacks in his team’s first 11 games since Aaron Donald in 2018. The player before Donald to do it was J.J. Watt, who also had exactly 13.5 in 2015.
He now has 20 career games with two or more sacks. That’s easily a Steelers’ record (since sacks became official in 1982) and now three more than James Harrison’s 17. He has a long way to go though to catch the record leader, Reggie White’s 50. A reminder of how absurdly good White was.
– But since breaking into the league in 2017, Watt’s 20 games are most in the NFL. New Orleans Saints DE Cam Jordan and Cleveland Browns DE Myles Garrett are second with 17.
– Pittsburgh held Cincinnati to just 25 yards rushing, the fewest yards it has held an opponent to since the Carolina Panthers rushed for just 18 last year. Since 2016, it’s the second-fewest yards the Steelers have allowed on the ground.
The last time Pittsburgh allowed fewer rushing yards to an AFC North opponent came in 2015 when the Cleveland Browns were held to just 15 yards. In matchup history, the only time the Bengals had less yards rushing came in 2012 when they were held to just 14.
– Pittsburgh did not allow a rushing first down Sunday. Per Pro Football Reference, which tracks such data back to 1999, it’s only the eighth time the Steelers pulled off that feat. It also happened last season against the Panthers and in a separate 2015 game against the Indianapolis Colts.
– The Bengals ran just 41 plays from scrimmage yesterday. That’s the fewest Pittsburgh’s allowed since 2014 when the Tennessee Titans had just 39. Since 2005, only the 2014 Titans and 2023 Bengals have run 41 or fewer plays against Pittsburgh.
Prior to this game, every opposing team ran at least 62 plays against Pittsburgh this season. On average, opponents were averaging 68.3 plays per game. The Bengals were nearly 30 below that.
– One area for the Steelers to work on? Red zone offense. Just one-of-four against the Bengals.
– For his regular-season career against the Bengals, K Chris Boswell is now 39-for-41, 95.1 percent. He has more made field goals against Cincinnati than any other team he’s played against. A divisional opponent, of course, but it’s 11 more than he has against Baltimore (28) and 16 more than he has against Cleveland (23).
Against all other non-Bengals opponents, Boswell’s field goal percentage is 85.4 percent. So 10 points higher against the Bengals than all other teams.
If you include Boswell’s playoff performance against the Bengals, going 4-for-4, he’s now 43-of-45 against Cincinnati all-time. That’s 95.6 percent. As automatic as it gets.
