Steelers Harris and Big Ben set records and other odd stats in Week 4

While the Steelers may have lost to Green Bay and dropped to 1-3, there are still some major milestones and odd stats that occurred.

Big Ben Milestone

With the touchdown Ben Roethlisberger threw on the game’s opening drive, he became only the 8th player in NFL history to pass for 400 touchdowns in a career.

Rough Day for Dan Marino

Continuing with Ben Roethlisberger’s milestones, He passed for 232 yards, moving into 6th place all-time in passing yards surpassing Dan Marino. He now needs 2059 more passing yards to surpass Phillip Rivers and move into 5th place all time.   If that wasn’t bad for Marino, later in the game, Aaron Rodgers tied Marino’s with his two touchdown passes at 420.

Steelers Streaks Snapped

With Najee’s performance today, he became the first Steelers running back to rush for more than 50 yards in one game since Benny Snell on 12/21/20. Also, it’s the most rushing first downs, five, since the Cleveland game on 1/3/2021. In addition, Harris had the first touchdown by a running back since James Conner scored one on 12/27/20 against Indianapolis.

The Steelers snapped two streaks in one fell swoop as well. They snapped their streak of not scoring in the first quarter and not scoring on their opening drive when Ben hit Diontae Johnson for a touchdown on their first drive. In Snapping their streak, it was the longest drought of not scoring early since 1938-39.

In His career, Ben Roethlisberger was 3-0 versus Green Bay in the regular season until today; with that loss, he dropped to 3-1. However, Roethlisberger is still undefeated against the Carolina Panthers (4-0), Detroit Lions (4-0), and the Rams (2-0).

Steelers 3rd Down Efficiency

The Steelers went 4-11 on third down against the Packers on Sunday. Since the NFL has kept track of this statistic, it is the lowest amount of third-down attempts and completed conversions against the Packers.

The first game with the Packers that this was an official NFL stat was 12/24/1995, and the Steelers went 7 of 16 with a 43.8% conversion. Even odder, it was the lowest number of conversions in a loss to an NFC team since 9/24/2017 in a loss to the Chicago Bears, an NFC North team.

4th Down attempts

This game marks the first game against green bay that the Steelers have attempted at least two 4th down attempts since their loss at Green Bay on 9/27/1992.

Sticky Fingers

With his six receptions on Sunday, Najee Harris now has the most receptions of any running back in the first four games of their career in Steelers history. The most by any other running back was Le’Veon Bell, who had 13 receptions in his first four games.

In conjunction, Harris also has the most receptions of any player in team history over their first four games. Amongst wide receivers, Louis Lipps and Antwaan Randel El shared the mark every 18 receptions in their first four games until Najee surpassed them.

Also, he is now tied for second amongst all running backs in NFL history with 26 plus receptions over their first four games. He is one reception behind Saquon Barkley, who has 27 in his first four games in 2018 and tied with Earl Cooper, who had 26 receptions for San Francisco in 1980.

Currently, he is on pace to have 104 receptions over his first 16 games. If he hits that mark, He will have the most receptions for a running back in his first NFL season as Saquon Barkley has the current record of 91 over his first 16 games.  If he reaches 59 receptions, he will have the most of a running back in Steelers history in their first 16 games.

Fans can expect more odd stats or milestones in their next game with the Broncos as all kinds of things can occur when these two teams face each other.