The Steelers, after their devastating loss to the Houston Texans, rebound before heading into the bye week by upsetting their hated rival, the Baltimore Ravens. After the loss to Houston and an injury to Kenny Pickett, it was hard to fathom how the Steelers would match up with the division-leading Baltimore Ravens. Nevertheless, the Steelers dug deep and made some phenomenal game-changing plays.
In typical fashion, as you might expect in a game between the Ravens and Steelers, the game played out in an almost bizarre fashion in which the Steelers, including blocked punts, safeties, sacks, and Kenny Pickett even having a game-winning drive and a 4th quarter comeback and our fair share of more unusual and odd stats as you have come to expect in matchups between the Steelers and Ravens.
Starting with the coin toss, which the Steelers won, Pittsburgh improved to 19-11 when they have won the coin toss in divisional matchups against their rivals, the Ravens.
T.J. Watt Milestone
T.J. Watt finished the game recording two sacks of Lamar Jackson. He now has eight sacks headed into the bye week. T.J. only needs 15.0 more sacks to break the single-season sack record. He must average 1.36 sacks per game for the remainder of the season to achieve that mark and become the NFL single-season sack leader.
Razor-thin scoring
In all games with the Baltimore Ravens since Mike Tomlin became head coach, the Steelers (not including Sunday's game results), have scored 711 total points, and the Ravens have scored a total of 709 points. Including the results of Sunday's game, the Steelers now have 728 points, and the Ravens have 719; that's the equivalent of three field goals.
As shown by the previous stat, both teams have a razor margin on points scored between both teams and remain nearly even regarding the number of points scored for each team. More interesting is that this was also the 20th game in series history between the Ravens and Steelers decided with a margin of seven points or less, and the Steelers improved to 12-8 in games decided by 7 points or less.
George Pickens Milestone
George Pickens had a tremendous game, moved into 6th place, and tied Yancy Thigpen with 130 receiving yards against the Ravens. However, he is only the third Steelers player to have at least 130 receiving yards in home games. Also, Pickens’ 130 yards was the most since 12/10/2017, when Antonio Brown shredded the Ravens secondary for 213 yards.
Interestingly, of the five players to have 130-plus receiving yards, two players have done it twice. First was Antonio Brown in 2017 and on 11/2/2014 with 144 yards. Yancy Thigpen did it twice as well and did it in the same season as well. In 1997, he did it on 10/5 and again a month later on 11/9. Thigpen's accomplishment is more interesting because he is the only Steelers player with 130-plus receiving yards at home and on the road against the Ravens.
Sacking the Ravens' offense
The Steelers, with T.J. Watts's two sacks combined with sacks from Alex Highsmith and Kwon Alexander, sacked Lamar Jackson at least four times for the 4th time in series history. Lamar Jackson and the Ravens are now 1-3 when the Steelers have sacked him at least four times.
Adding to that stat, teams sacked Lamar Jackon has sacked in 59 total games. However, currently, the Steelers are one sack behind the Cleveland Browns with the most sacks of Lamar Jackson with 20, while the Browns have 21. When it comes to the most sacks of Lamar Jackson; However, the Steelers have the single-game mark with seven sacks of Lamar Jackson on 12/05/2021
Steelers team milestones
The Steelers team, on the whole, had two milestones in their amazing victory over the Ravens. The game marked the first-ever Steelers blocked punt against the Ravens. This was not the first game in series history with a blocked punt; the Ravens blocked a Steelers punt on 11/6/2021.
The Steelers 2nd milestone was equally impressive. They scored their first-ever safety against the Ravens, and it was their first safety since scoring one against Denver in the 2020 season. Against AFC opponents, the Steelers have the most safeties against the Bengals, with four between 1986 and 2004. They have three safeties against Cleveland, one in 2018, 1982, and 1980. The Steelers have never scored more than one safety in a game.
The odd files
What article is complete with a stat from the odd side? In series history, the Steelers have scored 17 points three times in 2015, 2009, and 1996 and lost all three as the Ravens outscored them with at least 20 points or more and were 0-3.
This is the first Steelers victory over the Ravens, scoring 17 points. With the final score of 17-10. The score is very similar to the scores from their games with the Ravens on 1/9/2022 and 1/1/2023, in which the final score in both games was 16-13, with a Steelers win in both.
The Steelers head into a much-needed bye week and when they return in two weeks against the Los Angeles Rams, you can be assured their next game will produce even more unusual and odd stats to dissect.