After an ugly Pittsburgh Steelers loss, the best I can offer you is some weird. That…probably doesn’t help.
– Falling to the Philadelphia Eagles 27-13 is the Steelers’ largest defeat of the season. They had lost their other three games by a combined 11 points.
– By now, you’ve heard the stat about Pittsburgh not winning in Philadelphia since 1965. That’s no longer “weird.” But what you haven’t heard nearly as much is how uncompetitive those games have been.
In the Mike Tomlin era, the Steelers have been outscored by the Eagles in Philadelphia by a combined score of 111-35, a differential of 76 points across four games. Pittsburgh hasn’t scored more than 13 points in any of those contests. The Steelers have lost by margins of 31, 22, 14, and nine points. So all by more than one possession.
– Off the top, the most striking stat. Pittsburgh’s offense ran just 41 plays against Philadelphia. Since 1965, it’s the fourth-fewest snaps the Steelers have had in any regular-season game. It’s their fewest since a 1991 loss to the Seattle Seahawks when the team also ran 41 plays in a 27-7 defeat. The two games in which Pittsburgh’s run fewer plays were the 40 it had in a 1990 win over the Atlanta Falcons and a 1973 loss to the Indianapolis Colts.
– At least heading into Week 15, the Steelers’ 41 plays were the fewest of the season in the NFL. The last team to have so few came last year when the Cincinnati Bengals ran only 41 last year against…the Steelers, a 16-10 Pittsburgh win. Now, the Steelers are on the wrong side of 41.
You might think the Eagles’ 77 plays must be a record. But it’s not even close. The Cleveland Browns ran 81 against the Steelers last season. And the Cincinnati Bengals, albeit in overtime, ran 94 the year before. The record is the 99 the Bengals ran against the Steelers in 2001, another overtime game.
– Pittsburgh finished with just 10 first downs. It’s only the fourth time in the Mike Tomlin era they’ve been held to no more than 10, though they had nine in last year’s win against the Cleveland Browns. They had 10 in a 2019 loss to the Baltimore Ravens that QB Duck Hodges started and seven in a 2010 win over the Tennessee Titans. A game Dennis Dixon started and Charlie Batch finished.
– And one more twist of the knife. The Steelers’ 163 total yards of offense are the team’s worst output since that above 2010 game against the Titans. One they still found a way to win, 19-11.
It’s the team’s fewest in a loss since 2006 when the Jacksonville Jaguars shut them out, 9-0. That is the last season (though not the last game) in which the Steelers have been shut out, the second-longest active streak only behind the Baltimore Ravens, who haven’t been shut out since 2002.
– The Eagles finished with 401 yards of total offense. It’s the time first Pittsburgh’s offense has been held under 200 yards while the opponent had at least 400 since the 1994 season opener when the Dallas Cowboys outgained Pittsburgh 442-126 in a 26-9 win.
– Here’s the third-down yardage Pittsburgh needed on its first five attempts.
3rd and 7
3rd and 8
3rd and 10
3rd and 18
3rd and 18
Pittsburgh failed to convert on any of them. No surprise. The Steelers finished 3-of-10 on third down. The Eagles? 10-of-17.
– WR Calvin Austin III finished with five catches for 65 yards. He made up 35.7 percent of the team’s total receptions and 50.8 percent of the team’s passing yards.
– Van Jefferson recorded his seventh game this season catching one or fewer passes when he logged at least 30 offensive snaps. He had one reception for 0 yards Sunday.
Since Pro Football Reference began tracking snap counts in 2012, that is the second-most by a Steelers receiver. Jefferson only trails Allen Robinson II and his nine from a season ago. Before those two, the “high” is a five-way tie of four games (Markus Wheaton, Calvin Austin, James Washington, Steven Sims, and George Pickens).
Meaning, Robinson and Jefferson are running empty routes at a crazy pace.
Expanding that search leaguewide, Jefferson’s seven games are tied for 14th-most by any wide receiver with 30-plus snaps since 2012. The record is held by the New Orleans Saints’ Devery Henderson and his 12 set in 2012. Jefferson can’t tie that mark, but he could become the fourth player to reach double-digits, joining Henderson, the Carolina Panthers’ Louis Murphy also in 2012, and the Tennessee Titans’ Nick Westbook-Ikhine in 2022.
– A positive stat! TE Pat Freiermuth has caught a touchdown in three-straight games, the first Steelers tight end to do so since Heath Miller in Weeks 1-3 of the 2012 season.
If Freiermuth can make it a fourth, he’ll be the team’s first tight end since Miller in 2005.
– While the Steelers held RB Saquon Barkley to just 65 yards rushing, the Eagles are 2-0 in Barkley’s two worst rushing performances of the season. Both wins came against the AFC North. Barkley had just 47 yards in a 20-16 Week 6 win over the Cleveland Browns.
– Cordarrelle Patterson’s 33-yard kick return was his longest since 2022.
– T.J. Watt has 33 forced fumbles since being drafted in 2017. No one else has more than 24 during that span.
– Reaching double-digit sacks yesterday, Watt now has four career seasons of 10-plus sacks and at least five forced fumbles. Since forced fumbles were recognized in 1982, Watt has tied the record for most career 10/5 years. He equaled what Robert Mathis and DeMarcus Ware did over their careers.
Watt broke a tie with the likes of Khalil Mack, Bruce Smith, James Harrison, Julius Peppers, and others.
– Now with 108 career sacks, Watt is just outside the top 30 on the official list (since 1982). He needs 1.5 to get there, tying Greg Townsend and Calais Campbell. Worth pointing out that Campbell is still playing so he could also move up the charts, though Watt will soon enough pass him by.
Watt sit three sacks shy of tying Aaron Donald’s career mark.
– Watt recorded his 25th game of two-plus sacks yesterday, tied for the most of any active player. That would’ve given him sole possession of first place had it not been for Cam Jordan also recording two sacks Sunday for the New Orleans Saints. Kinda crazy.
– Despite the loss, the Steelers won the turnover battle 2-1. They’re now plus-18 on the season, the team’s best mark since 1972 when it finished plus-22. The franchise record is plus-23 set in 1936.
– Pittsburgh has won the turnover battle in three of their four losses this year. They won it 3-1 against the Cleveland Browns and Dallas Cowboys.
– The Eagles’ final drive of the game was a 21-play march to bleed the final 10:39 of the game, gaining 88 yards. It’s the ninth 21-plus play drive since 2001 and the first against the Steelers. Pittsburgh had an offensive one in 2022 against the Carolina Panthers.
Philadelphia’s is the first team to end a game that way. Previously, the longest drive to end a game in a win was the Cincinnati Bengals’ 17 in 2022 and the New England Patriots in 2002. The former started by Joe Burrow, the latter by Tom Brady. Brady called yesterday’s game.
The Denver Broncos ended a 2019 game with a 19-play drive but that was in a failed attempt to win the game, not them bleeding the clock the way the Eagles did. The Carolina Panthers also had an 18-play drive in 2019 against the Green Bay Packers in a 24-16 loss. That game was started by current Steelers third-string QB Kyle Allen.
– Finally, the Steelers’ recorded 92 total tackles yesterday. The Eagles had just 39. A whopping 23 Steelers recorded at least one tackle. Just 15 Eagles players did.
