Stats That Stood Out: Week 3 (Steelers vs. Bears)
Boy, that left a sour taste. Another road game that had the Steelers favored by 7+ points, another loss. Let’s jump into it:
8,731
With his 110 receiving yards today, Antonio Brown passed John Stallworth (8,723) for second-most in Steelers history. Brown now has 8,731 career receiving yards with 13 games remaining in the 2017 season.
650
Antonio Brown set an NFL record for the fewest games to reach 650 career receptions doing so in 104 games. Marvin Harrison was the previous record holder with 650 in 107 games.
240
With his six receptions vs. the Bears, Le’Veon Bell surpassed Antonio Brown for the most catches by a Steelers player in their first 50 career games with 240 receptions. Brown had 234 receptions in 50 games.
220
The Bears ran for 220 yards with running back Jordan Howard leading the way with 138 yards and 2 touchdowns. Of the 220, 146 came outside of the tackles. The Ravens love to run outside zone run plays, so it’ll be interesting to see how well the Steelers fare against it next week.
101
Bears quarterback Mike Glennon only needed to throw for 101 yards on 15 completions in the victory. Making offenses one dimensional is normally the key for defenses, but the Bears were one dimensional on purpose and still prevailed. Glennon is now 2-0 vs. the Steelers – other win was a 27-24 nail biter in 2014.
48
Ben Roethlisberger completed only 12 of 25 passes to backs, receivers and tight ends not named “Antonio Brown”, a completion percentage of 48. Much like last year, Ben is struggling to find rhythm with his other receivers even with Martavis Bryant back in the lineup.
17
The Steelers offense only ran the ball 17 times and gained 70 yards. After handing the ball off 30 times last week vs. the Vikings, the Steelers failed to find any balance on offense, much like week one against the Browns. Even though the carries have not produced any explosive runs, Todd Haley and the rest of the offense must put more focus on giving Bell and the other backs the ball more to keep defenses honest and free up the deep throws that Ben loves.
