Welcome back to a second helping of Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns weird.
– Some of the baseline stats you already know. With their 27-14 victory, the Steelers avoid being swept by the Browns. It still hasn’t happened since 1988. Since 1989, Pittsburgh is a perfect 11-0 in the rematch when losing the first regular-season meeting.
The Steelers have now won 21-striaght home regular season games against the Browns. Their last loss came in 2003. To put that in perspective, Mike Tomlin was the DBs Coach in Tampa Bay, Kevin Stefanski was playing DB at Penn, Russell Wilson was in high school, and Jameis Winston was 9 years old.
So yeah, it’s been awhile.
– Twelve different Steelers have caught a pass across the last two games: All the WRs currently on the 53 (George Pickens, Van Jefferson, Calvin Austin III, Ben Skowronek, Mike Williams, and Scotty Miller), all the RBs (Najee Harris, Jaylen Warren, and Cordarrelle Patterson), and three of the four tight ends (Pat Freiermuth, Darnell Washington, and MyCole Pruitt). Only Connor Heyward hasn’t been invited to the team’s Reindeer Games.
– QB Russell Wilson threw two more touchdowns. That’s his fourth such performance of the season. Post-Ben Roethlisberger, Wilson has more in his seven starts than all other Steelers QBs combined over that span. The others have three in 40 other starts.
Kenny Pickett, Mason Rudolph, and Justin Fields each had one.
– WR Scotty Miller finished the game with three receptions. That’s the most he’s had in a game in more than two years last doing so on Nov. 6, 2022, when he recorded seven receptions for 53 yards against the Los Angeles Rams. Tom Brady was Miller’s QB that day. Brady spent yesterday calling a game from the FOX broadcast booth.
Miller’s three-reception games have almost entirely come from Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks in Brady and yesterday, Russell Wilson. The only exceptions came in 2019 when three times he caught at least three passes as a rookie from Jameis Winston, who started for the Browns yesterday. Fun!
– TE Pat Freiermuth has 13 receptions for 175 yards and two touchdowns over his last three games. From a yardage standpoint, it’s the second-best three-game stretch he’s had in his NFL career only trailing Weeks 11-13 in 2022, 194 yards.
This current stretch came in a similar range, Weeks 12-14.
– DT Cam Heyward had two sacks yesterday, giving him eight on the season. Officially, it’s the most by a Steeler age 35 or older in NFL history, breaking a tie with LB James Farrior. Unofficially, before sacks were recognized by the NFL in 1982, Heyward is tied with Hall of Famer Ernie Stautner. He recorded eight at age 37 in 1962.
– Officially and based on my research (there can sometimes be a gray zone between who is a DE and DT but I’ve gone through old footage to do the best I can to confirm), Heyward is one of just two DTs since 1982 age 35-plus to record at least eight sacks in a season. Hall of Famer and Chicago Bears DT Steve McMichael holds the record with 10.5 of them in at age 35 in 1992.
– NT Keeanu Benton picked off his first NFL pass yesterday. He’s the first Steelers NT to intercept one since Kendrick Clancy in 2001. And you know we have the clip. Clancy caught a deflection from CB Chad Scott to pick off Tennessee Titans quarterback and the late Steve McNair in the final minutes of an easy Steelers win.
– Benton has more interceptions (1) than sacks (0) this season. He also has more picks than Minkah Fitzpatrick does in 2023-2024.
– Here’s a plain fun one. The time of possession split between Pittsburgh and Cleveland? Right down the middle. 30 minutes on the nose for the Steelers, 30 minutes on the button for the Browns.
It appears that’s the first time it’s happened since TOP was tracked in 1991. In 2022 against the Jets, Kenny Pickett’s debut, the Steelers finished at 30:01. And in a 1991 blowout loss to the Houston Oilers, they finished at 30:02.
The last teams to finish right at 30:00 came in 2021 when the Minnesota Vikings and Los Angeles Rams cut the sandwich right down the middle. The Rams won the day, 30-23.
– In two games against the Steelers, the Browns went 3-of-23 on third down. That’s just 13 percent.
However, Cleveland also went 7-of-8 on fourth down. That’s 87.5 percent. Really weird split.
– Like in Week 12, Pittsburgh won the turnover battle 3-1. This time, they won the game and ended the season series ahead 6-2 in the turnover fight.
– The Steelers are now plus-17 in turnover margin, tying their best mark of the last 47 years. In 2010, their last Super Bowl appearance, they were also plus-17.
If Pittsburgh can get to plus-18, it’ll be its best mark since 1972 when it finished plus-22. The franchise record is plus-23, set way back in 1938 when the team was the Pittsburgh Pirates before being renamed the Steelers in 1940.
– With the Bills and Rams not turning the ball over yesterday, Pittsburgh and Buffalo are tied for the NFL’s best TO-margin mark at plus-17. On the other end of the spectrum, the Raiders are last at minus-17. Meaning, there is a 34-turnover gulf between the two sides.
– The Steelers are on pace to finish with 36 takeaways this year. That would be the league’s most since 2019 when the New England Patriots finished second in the league with 36 of them while the…Steelers led the league with 38.
– Talk about home field advantage. In 2024, here’s how Chris Boswell has performed at Acrisure Stadium versus opposing kickers.
Chris Boswell: 18-of-19 (94.7-percent)
Opposing Kickers: 8-of-14 (57.1-percent)
Boswell’s only miss came from 62 yards at the end of the first half against the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 3.
– Mike Tomlin won his first challenge of the year, overturning a botched moment by the refs/replay assist that didn’t rule TE David Njoku down after a fourth-down catch, saving Pittsburgh about 10 additional yards.
– Finally, the Steelers won their third game of the season while recording six or fewer passing first downs, notching six in Sunday’s win over the Browns. That’s tied with the Indianapolis Colts for the most in the league this season.
Since the stat was tracked beginning in 1999, the single-season record is five by the 1999 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 2000 Miami Dolphins, 2005 Chicago Bears, 2009 Cleveland Browns.
Pittsburgh has tied its season-most, matching the three such games it won in 2000 and 2005.
