Welcome to your weekly Pittsburgh Steelers “stat pack,” five numbers you need to know to get ready for the upcoming game against the Washington Commanders. 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.
48
The number of kicks between this weekend’s legs, Washington’s Austin Seibert and Pittsburgh’s Chris Boswell. They are No. 1 and No. 2 in the league with Seibert’s 25 and Boswell’s 23. That’s thanks to both teams struggling in the red zone and relying on their kicker to finish off drives. Both teams hope to find paydirt with more regularity, but the kickers have developed plenty of trust to get the job done.
82.1, 61.7
QB Jayden Daniels’ completion percentage from his first four starts versus his last four, excluding the game he left early due to injury. A big drop-off from his uber-hot start. Of course, regression to the mean was expected and he wasn’t going to sustain a completion percentage above the 80s. But it has cooled off in a fairly significant way and that’s a benefit to the Steelers’ defense, allowing quarterbacks to complete 64-percent of their passes this season. Still, Daniels is a major threat.
8
The combined number of giveaways by Washington and Pittsburgh this year. The Commanders only have three, the Steelers just five. An incredibly low number of turnovers and one key reason why both teams are atop their divisions.
To put that in perspective, entering Week 10, a whopping 25 teams alone have turned the ball over more than eight times this season. Pittsburgh and Washington combined are just at eight. Really impressive stuff and whichever defense can take the ball away even once Sunday will feel like a win.
7.6
Per NextGenStats, the cushion Steelers WR Calvin Austin III is given by opponents this year. That’s third-highest of any wide receiver in the league only trailing the Los Angeles Rams’ Tutu Atwell and Atlanta Falcons’ Ray-Ray McCloud.
Now, there’s probably some context lost here about alignment. All three of these receivers are smaller and their cushion could be a response to their alignment. But it’s also respecting their speed and big-play ability. Austin doesn’t have big volume but is averaging 18.4 yards per grab, fifth-best of any player with at least 10 grabs this season.
123.7
That’s the passer rating Steelers’ quarterbacks have when targeting TE Pat Freiermuth this season. It’s 15th-best among all non-RBs with at least 30 targets and is fifth among all tight ends this season. Freiermuth’s numbers aren’t overwhelming, but he’s still on pace to 55 receptions, 561 yards, and four touchdowns. And that’s in a run-heavy offense that’s playing with the lead. Those numbers could increase over the course of the year if Pittsburgh plays from behind more often.
