Steelers players hit personal bests and odd milestones in back-to-back wins
Kenny Pickett Milestones
Face it: the Steelers have not played the best offensive football in the past few weeks. Still, they have eked out a 2-1 record in the month of September. While we are not at the point of comparing him to Big Ben just yet, Kenny Pickett has earned some odd career milestones in the past two weeks, which will keep him in the record book for odd Steelers statistical measures for a while.
For the first time in his career, Pickett managed to throw multiple touchdowns for the first time in one game in his career. Hopefully, this is a step in the right direction for the Steelers offense in 2023. However, aside from his performance against the Raiders, here are the slightly odder milestones he accomplished in the last two weeks.
Pickett became the first quarterback since Ben Roethlisberger to throw multiple touchdown strikes of 70-plus yards in consecutive weeks. Since Big Ben accomplished the same feat three weeks in a row since 2018, Pickett hit George Pickens for 71 yards in the Monday night win over Cleveland and then hit Calvin Austin for 72 yards in the Sunday night win over the Raiders.
Between November 8th and November 25th of 2018, Big Ben hit JuJu Smith Schuster twice in November once on November 8th and November 25th for 75 yards (against the Panthers) and 97 yards (against Denver). On November 18th, Big Ben hit Antonio Brown for 78 yards (against Jacksonville).
Kenny Pickett set a Steelers team record you would not likely think he would set. He is now the Steelers record holder for the most passing yards against the Cleveland Browns in a Monday night game with 222 passing yards. No other Steelers quarterback has even surpassed 200 yards in a Monday night contest against Cleveland.
One last Kenny Pickett Milestone is even odder yet. Kenny Pickett is now only the 2nd quarterback in Steelers team history to have a passer rating of 108 or higher against the Raiders. Big Ben had a passer higher than 108 three times against the Raiders as he had 123.2 in 2012, 127.8 in 2010, and 130.2 in 2018.
What makes this an odd milestone for Kenny Pickett is that while Big Ben obtained high passer ratings, two of those ratings were on the road against the Raiders, and Big Ben lost both games. Thus, Kenny Pickett is the lone Steelers quarterback with a passer rating of over 108 with a win on the road against the Raiders. Roethlisberger's 3rd game with a passer rating against the Raiders was at home, and he won that game but is 1-2 against the Raiders all-time with a passer rating over 108.