Kenny Pickett era begins by setting an odd Steelers record

When the Jets arrived at the Steelers home, you knew the game had the potential to get crazy in some capacity, regardless of the ending result of the game.

The game did not disappoint in unusual occurrences, Chris Boswell set a new stadium record for the Steelers. In his debut in the NFL regular season, even rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett found an obscure way to make the records book.

Perhaps the most disappointing stat is that in Jet’s history, when they travel to Pennsylvania have never beaten Philadelphia and had a 1-16 record in Pittsburgh, including two playoff games. After their victory, the Jets are now 2-16 lifetime in Pittsburgh.

However, the Steelers did manage to end the Jets’ streak. Zach Wilson had the longest active streak of 171 passes without an interception. Cam Sutton ended that streak with his 2nd quarter interception of Zach Wilson, which led to a Chris Boswell field goal.

On the odd side of statistics is not the first 24-20 loss at the hands of the Jets. The Steelers played the Jets to a 24-20 loss on 10/30/1988. This is also the 4th game overall in series history in which the Steelers scored 20 points.

‘Wizard of Boz’ strikes again for Steelers

In Pittsburgh, the wizard of kicking field goals, Chris Boswell, made the record books again. Late in the second quarter, thanks to a Jets’ roughing the passer call, Chris Boswell attempted a 59-yard field goal. He not only made it, but it had at least 10 yards to spare. It surpassed Boswell’s record of 56 yards at home and equaled his longest ever that he kicked in Dallas.

Zach Wilson does it all against Steelers

The most unusual stat to come out of Sunday’s game is that Zach Wilson caught a pass for a touchdown in the first half. Who was the last starting quarterback to have a reception against the Steelers? That honor belongs to Michael Vick in 2006.

Before Wilson’s reception, only three other starting quarterbacks had caught a pass against the Steelers Drew Bledsoe in 1995, Bernie Kosar in 1989, and Matt Cavanaugh in 1981. The oddity here is that of the five receptions by a quarterback against the Steelers, two of them had occurred when they played the Patriots, and three of them occurred against AFC east teams.

Kenny Pickett era begins with Pickett setting an odd Steelers Record

After a poor performance by Mitch Trubisky in the first half against the Jets, Mike Tomlin turned to Kenny Pickett to start as the quarterback in the 2nd half. Undoubtedly, his performance was a mixed bag, but he brought an improved play and scored two touchdowns, setting an obscure record in the process. Thus it didn’t take Pickett very long to start setting records.

Kenny Pickett became the first quarterback in Steelers history to come off the bench and score two touchdowns. Big Ben came off the bench once in his career but did not score any touchdowns in that game. Terry Bradshaw came off the bench once on 10/31/1976 against the Chargers and scored one touchdown, and Mark Malone came off the bench on 12/7/1981 and scored one touchdown.

Another mark on a much smaller scale is that Pickett converted the Steelers first 4th down conversion in the 2022 season. The Steelers were 0 for 2 in 4th down attempts until he converted one in the second half.

Despite the success Pickett had, his quarterback rating, 65.1, was the lowest for any quarterback coming off the bench with 13 plus passing attempts since Joe Gilliam’s rating of 62 when he came off the bench against Cleveland on 11/25/1973. The only other Steelers quarterback with a worse rating coming off the bench with at least 13 pass attempts was Terry Bradshaw in 1976 when he had a rating of 60.

Despite giving the Steelers offense a boost, Pickett threw three interceptions and came close to tying another rookie mark. Pickett became the first rookie quarterback to come off the bench and throw three interceptions since Terry Bradshaw did it twice in the 1970 season. Bradshaw still has the record, throwing four interceptions  against Kansas City on 11/15/1970  and throwing three interceptions against Green Bay on 12/6/1970

The last Steelers quarterback rookie or not to come off the bench and throw at least three interceptions? Jim Miller did it against the Vikings on 9/24/1995. However, making this stat a bit odder is that a quarterback coming off the bench and throwing at least three interceptions has occurred in the 4th game of the season on three occasions of the nine times it has happened. Terry Bradshaw has done it the most, having three games coming off the bench with three plus interceptions; David Woodley has done it twice, followed by Cliff Stoudt, Mike Tomczak, and Jim Miller.

Now that the Kenny Pickett era has begun, the Steelers face Buffalo next Sunday. With a rookie quarterback that has the potential to create big plays, anything could happen in the next Steelers game, and there could be any number of odd stats when the game is over.