A comfortable win for the Pittsburgh Steelers feels weird. So let’s add some more to it.
– This is the first 32-13 game Pittsburgh has played in team history, win or lose. So on a personal level, it’s Steelers’ Scorigami. It’s the seventh-ever 32-13 final in NFL history.
Crazy enough, it happened only four times from 1920-2020. Since 2021, this is the third instance and they’ve all been won by AFC North teams. The Cincinnati Bengals in 2021, the Cleveland Browns in 2022, and the Steelers in 2024.
– Sunday’s win marked the most points Pittsburgh has scored in a road win since Christmas 2017 when the Steelers beat the Houston Texans, 34-6. To put that in perspective, starting QB Justin Fields, in his fourth NFL season, was a senior in high school the last time Pittsburgh achieved that.
– Since 2019, it’s only the second road win in which Pittsburgh has scored at least 30 points and won. They also did so last year, 30-23 over the Seattle Seahawks.
– Najee Harris carried the ball 14 times for 106 yards, averaging 7.6 yards. It’s the highest single-game average he’s had in the NFL and his best mark since the 2021 Rose Bowl when he averaged 8.3 yards on 15 carries in a 31-14 win over Notre Dame.
– Harris’ YPC is the best by a Steelers back with at least his 14 rushes since Le’Veon Bell in 2016 when he carried the ball 18 times for 144 yards (8.0 YPC) in a 43-14 win over the Kansas City Chiefs.
– It took Harris until his sixth week of the season to notch his first rushing score. The same story played out last year, Harris needing until the sixth week to rush over the goal line. He still finished last year with eight rushing scores. We’ll see if he can match that figure again, too.
– Justin Fields is the first Steelers QB to play the entire game, throw for under 150 yards, and have his team score at least 30 points in a win since – you guessed it – Mike Tomczak in a 1999 30-20 win over the Carolina Panthers. Tomczak threw for just 94 yards that day as RBs Jerome Bettis and Richard Huntley combined for over 200 yards rushing. To put that in perspective, Justin Fields was about 9 months old when that occurred.
To be clear, there have been other games in which Steelers quarterbacks have done this in a 30-point win, but they’ve either been rested in a blowout or split time with another quarterback, hampering their ability to reach the 150-yard barrier. But 1999 was the last time only one Pittsburgh QB threw passes under these circumstances.
– Fields is up to five rushing scores this season, the most rushing touchdowns by a Steelers QB since Kordell Stewart in 2001.
– A positive passing stat for Fields. He has just one interception through the team’s first six games, matching him with Terry Bradshaw as the only two Steelers quarterbacks in history to appear in all six of the team’s first six games and throw no more than one pick (minimum 100 attempts). Fields has five touchdowns and one interception on the season, the same stats Bradshaw had in 1975.
Kent Graham and Ben Roethlisberger had similar achievements but didn’t play in all six games. Graham appeared in four in 2000 while Roethlisberger appeared in five in 2005. Interestingly, the Steelers won the Super Bowl in two of those three previous seasons.
Since 2020, only five NFL QBs have done that: Patrick Mahomes (2020), Brock Purdy (2023), C.J. Stroud (2023), Tom Brady (2022), and Carson Wentz (2021). Not a bad list to be on. Buffalo’s Josh Allen can join Fields if he has a clean sheet tonight against the New York Jets.
– As a team, Pittsburgh rushed 35 times for 185 yards and 3 touchdowns yesterday. That’s only the third time it’s happened in the Mike Tomlin era, joining a 2016 win over the Buffalo Bills (Bell closing things out in the snow) and last year’s win over the Seahawks.
– For the third-straight season, the Steelers have failed to average even one passing touchdown through their first six contests. In 2024, they have five. In 2023, they had five. In 2022, they had four. It’s the franchise’s first three-year streak since 1970-1972, the start of the Terry Bradshaw era.
– LB Patrick Queen led the Steelers with 13 tackles. That ties his career high, matching a 2021 game against the Green Bay Packers while with the Baltimore Ravens.
– T.J. Watt is the first Steeler to force two fumbles in one game since…T.J. Watt last season. In fact, Watt is the Steeler to have the last five instances of forcing two fumbles in one game. The last non-Watt to do it was Ryan Shazier in 2017.
Shazier is also the last Steeler until Watt Sunday to force two fumbles against the run instead of sacks. Meaning, this is Watt’s first time doing that. Not many individual achievements left on his bucket list but that was one of them.
– This was Watt’s fifth multi-forced fumble game in his career, breaking a tie with James Harrison for most by a Steeler since 1999, as far back as Pro Football Reference reliably tracks. The only other Steeler to have even more than one such game over that span is the late Clark Haggans and his two.
– The Raiders racked up five first downs on their opening drive. They had just two the rest of the first half.
– After allowing a 56-percent third-down conversion rate the previous two weeks, the opposition 17-of-30, the Raiders were just 2-of-11 on third down.
– Pittsburgh’s defense has forced 12 red zone turnovers since last season, the most in the NFL over that span. They picked up one against the Raiders, Watt’s FF/DeShon Elliott’s FR on the goal line. Not just preventing touchdowns but keeping all points off the board.
– In what could be the tightest race of the season, K Chris Boswell is responsible for 58 points this season. The rest of the team combined is responsible for 66. Who will come out on top?
