Steelers oddball victories: A rare win over the Patriots in 2011

The Pittsburgh Steelers haven’t fared well against the New England Patriots in the Tom Brady era. Here’s how they squeaked out a win in 2011.

Sports statistics can always be fun to utilize, especially on a team level when you look at the Pittsburgh Steelers. Given their team’s long history, one particular way to use of statistics allows one to find odd occurrences that may have happened, and the Steelers still managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Scouring the record books, this will be a weekly segment doing just that; calling it Steelers oddball victories.

Every Steeler fan generally has a strong dislike for the New England Patriots. In part because Ben Roethlisberger has had a sub-par record facing Tom Brady. So anytime Ben has offed Brady, it has been a momentous event worth celebrating. This week’s oddball Steelers victory takes us to such an occasion on October 30, 2011, Pittsburgh at NewEngland – a pre-Halloween treat for the Steelers.

Pittsburgh 25 New England 17

This victory was one of the only wins against the New England Patriots in the Big Ben era (2004-2019), in which the Steelers gave up five sacks in one game and still beat New England. Also, it’s Ben Roethlisberger’s second-highest yards passing total (329) while winning a game and sacked five times.

His highest single-game passing yard total with five sacks came against Green Bay at home in 2009 as he passed for 472 yards. The Steelers gave up five sacks in two other games against New England 2010 and 2013; the Steelers lost both games.

Even odder statistic

Pittsburgh with Ben Roethlisberger has only had one game when their opponent had six sacks. Big Ben did not play in that game.  The only quarterback sacked six times in one game since 2004 was Tommy Maddox. This happened on November 20, 2005, in a home loss to the Baltimore Ravens. He only started two games in 2005 played in four total.

Maddox lost his role as starting quarterback to Ben Roethlisberger the previous season in 2004 in a home loss to the Baltimore Ravens too. In that game, the Ravens sacked Big Ben and Tommy Maddox twice each. Pittsburgh sacked Kyle Boller twice, adding up to six total sacks in the game.

There’s nothing quite like beating the New England Patriots, and it was remarkable what the team was able to overcome. Though Pittsburgh’s victories against Bill Belichick’s teams are few and far between, let’s hope for more of these wins in the future.