New year. Same weird. Let’s get your 2024 started the right way.
– Two weeks ago, Pittsburgh went an NFL-worst 55 straight games without scoring 30 or more points in a win. In the last two games, they’ve done it twice. It’s the first time they’ve done so in consecutive games since Weeks Five and Six of the 2020 season, a 38-29 win over the Philadelphia Eagles followed by a 38-7 win against the Cleveland Browns.
– Mason Rudolph averaged 11.4 yards per attempt in yesterday’s win, the Steelers’ highest YPA by a quarterback with at least 20 attempts since Ben Roethlisberger’s 13.1 in their 52-21 win over the Carolina Panthers 2018. Roethlisberger only had a higher YPA than Rudolph did in this game seven times throughout his career (again, minimum 20 attempts).
– Rudolph now has back-to-back games with a YPA of 10-plus. It’s just the third such instance in team history (minimum 20 attempts), joining Roethlisberger in 2010 and Terry Bradshaw in 1982. Interestingly, Roethlisberger and Bradshaw accomplished those marks in the final two weeks of the year, Weeks 16 and 17. Rudolph also did his in Weeks 16 and 17, though he has one more week to play in this 17-game season. Pretty wild symmetry.
– The Steelers finished Sunday with 202 yards rushing, making for the second game this season they’ve hit 200 or more, also running for 205 against the Green Bay Packers in Week 10.
It’s the first time the Steelers have notched a pair of 200-yard rushing games in the same season since 2014 when they did so against the Carolina Panthers and Tennessee Titans.
– The Steelers ran the ball an incredible 46 times in Seattle. It’s the most they’ve had in a game since 2006, a 27-7 win over the Cleveland Browns in which Pittsburgh ran 52 times for 303 yards.
– The last time and only other time Pittsburgh won in Seattle came in 1983. That day, the Steelers ran the ball 60 times (tying a post-merger team record) for 182 yards and three touchdowns.
Sunday? In total, 46 carries, 202 yards, and three touchdowns. Very similar styles to victory. That’s the ticket in Seattle.
– Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren are the first pair of Steelers running backs with 750 or more yards rushing in the same season since Jerome Bettis (941) and Duce Staley (830) did so in 2004.
– Mason Rudolph’s rushing line? Six carries, five yards, three first downs. He attempted four total QB sneaks. It’s a little late-era Jerome Bettis like. Just needs the touchdowns.
– Despite Rudolph’s 18 completions, only four Steelers were targeted: WRs George Pickens and Diontae Johnson, RB Jaylen Warren, and TE Pat Freiermuth.
– Players with back-to-back 130-plus yard receiving games in Steelers’ history:
1. Antonio Brown (five times)
2. Hines Ward
3. George Pickens
Pickens joined that list with his 131 yards against the Seahawks.
– Now up to 1,140 yards on the season, Pickens sits third all-time in team history for most receiving yards in his first two NFL years. In the win, he surpassed Antonio Brown (1,108 in 2011) and Louis Lipps (1,134). He now trails Mike Wallace (1,257) and JuJu Smith-Schuster (1,426) on the leaderboard. Pickens won’t take that top spot, but he could make a run at Wallace for second place.
– Eric Rowe paced the Steelers with 10 tackles. It was only the third time in his career he had that many.
– On the other side, Seahawks LB Devin Bush had 17 tackles. But only five were solo. A weird-looking stat line. Per Pro Football Reference, as far back as their tackle numbers go, only the third player with at least 17 total tackles and no more than five solo. The last was also by a Seahawk, S Kam Chancellor in 2015 while Miami Dolphins LB Zach Thomas did the same in 2006.
– A little specific but a fun one. Steelers rookie LB Nick Herbig is up to three sacks this season. Of the official sack era (1982 to present) he is just the second Pittsburgh player drafted in Round Four or later (or undrafted) with at least three sacks in Year One. He joins LB Jerrol Williams, who finished with three in 1989.
Other pre-sack era Steelers to do it? Dwight White, L.C. Greenwood, Clarence Washington, and Ben McGee. That’s a heck of a list.
– Pittsburgh punted just once in this game, a 46-yard boot by Pressley Harvin III. The last time the Steelers punted just once in a game came in 2021, their failed comeback against the Los Angeles Chargers. The last time it happened in a win was 2019 over the Indianapolis Colts.
If you’re wondering, the last time the Steelers went a game without punting was Week 16 of the 2004 season, a 20-7 win over the Baltimore Ravens.
– On the season, Pittsburgh has 40 red zone trips. A whopping 25 percent of them have occurred in the last two weeks.
– Finally, since 1999, there’s been only three Steelers rookies to force at least two fumbles. Two of them have come this season. Both from Wisconsin. Nick Herbig and Keeanu Benton. The other? Ricardo Colclough in 2004. Herbig and Benton are on track to have a far better career.
