Welcome to your weekly Pittsburgh Steelers “stat pack,” five numbers you need to know to get ready for the upcoming game against the Las Vegas Raiders. They could relate to the opponent or the Steelers themselves and could involve an individual, unit, or something else. All to help you become the smartest fan for gameday.
Six
The number of consecutive seasons the Pittsburgh Steelers have experienced a three-game losing streak under Mike Tomlin. It began in 2018 and has run through 2023, losing three straight to the Cardinals, Patriots, and Colts last season. It’s a dubious streak the Steelers are in danger of extending with a loss Sunday to the Raiders.
This is easily the longest such streak since the 1970 merger. The previous longest was three, from 1998 to 2000.
11%
QB Justin Fields’ “aggressiveness” percentage, per NextGenStats this season. They define aggressiveness as:
“The amount of passing attempts a quarterback makes that are into tight coverage, where there is a defender within 1 yard or less of the receiver at the time of completion or incompletion.”
That is the fourth-lowest figure of any qualifying quarterback. Only Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, and Caleb Williams are lower. It’s subjective to say if lower is better, but the general consensus is that a lower percentage means quarterbacks are being less risky with the football.
However, his number is about the norm as it was in Chicago. In 2023, he finished just over 12 percent, and in 2022, he had the league’s lowest aggressiveness rate at 9.1 percent. I would’ve guessed it was higher.
Five
The number of receptions TE Darnell Washington has this season. It’s two shy from tying the entirety of his rookie season, and Washington has gotten more involved in the pass game lately. However, it should be noted that he’s still being asked to pass block much more than he did as a rookie, which we noted in training camp. Per PFF, he’s in pass protection 42.3 percent of the time this season. As a rookie, it was just 21.9 percent.
21.6
Pittsburgh’s “expected points” in the passing game, per Pro Football Reference, are essentially how effective the passing game has been.
While that ranks only 14th this year, it’s a much better mark than the minus-2.76 they registered all of last year, which ranked 24th. So, there has been improvement, even if the passing game and offense still need to make strides.
Four
The number of multi-passing touchdown games the Steelers have said since 2022, the post-Ben Roethlisberger era. That’s the fewest in football and half the next-closest team, the Carolina Panthers and their 8. By comparison, the Cincinnati Bengals and Minnesota Vikings lead the league with 25 such games over that span, more than sextupling the Steelers’ figure.
Justin Fields did throw two scores against Dallas and will look to make it back-to-back performances versus Las Vegas. That’s something Pittsburgh hasn’t done with Ben Roethlisberger in Weeks 13 and 14 of the 2021 season.
Bonus Stat – 28
Speaking of multi-stats, that’s the number of multi-sack games Watt has had since being drafted in 2017. That leads the NFL, two more than second-place Myles Garrett. He’s one of only four players with at least 20, Aaron Donald and Chris Jones the other two. Sunday’s loss to the Cowboys was Watt’s first such instance this season. He’ll try to go back-to-back this weekend.
