Stats from The Weird: Steelers vs. Raiders

A comfortable win for the Pittsburgh Steelers feels strange. So let's add something else.

– This is the first 32-13 game Pittsburgh has played in team history, whether won or lost. So on a personal level, it's the Steelers' Scorigami. It is the seventh 32-13 final in NFL history.

Crazy enough, it only happened four times between 1920 and 2020. This is the third time since 2021 and they have all been won by AFC North teams. The Cincinnati Bengals in 2021, the Cleveland Browns in 2022 and the Steelers in 2024.

– Sunday's victory marked the most points Pittsburgh has scored in a road win since Christmas 2017, when the Steelers beat the Houston Texans 34-6. To put that in perspective, starting quarterback Justin Fields was a senior in his fourth NFL season the last time Pittsburgh accomplished this.

– It is only the second road win since 2019 in which Pittsburgh scored at least 30 points and won. They also achieved this last year, beating the Seattle Seahawks 30:23.

– Najee Harris carried the ball 14 times for 106 yards, an average of 7.6 yards. It's the highest single-game average he's had in the NFL and his best mark since the 2021 Rose Bowl, when he averaged 8.3 yards on 15 carries in a 31-14 win over Notre Dame.

– Harris' YPC is the most by a Steelers defender with at least 14 carries since Le'Veon Bell in 2016, when he carried the ball 18 times for 144 yards (8.0 YPC) in a 43-14 win over the Kansas City Chiefs ) wore.

– It took Harris until the sixth week of the season to get his first rushing score. The same story played out last year when it took Harris until Week 6 to rush over the goal line. He still finished last year with eight rushing scores. We'll see if he can achieve this value again.

– Justin Fields becomes the first Steelers QB to play the entire game, throw for fewer than 150 yards and have his team score at least 30 points in a win since – You guessed it – Mike Tomczak in a 30-20 win over the Carolina Panthers in 1999. Tomczak only threw for 94 yards on the day, while RBs Jerome Bettis and Richard Huntley combined for over 200 yards. To put that in perspective, Justin Fields was about 9 months old when this happened.

To be clear: There have been other games where Steelers quarterbacks have done this in a 30-point win, but they were rested either because of a blowout or part-time with another quarterback, which hindered their ability to reach 150 points. Reaching the yard mark affected . But 1999 was the last time a single Pittsburgh quarterback threw passes under those circumstances.

– Fields has up five rushing scores this season, the most rushing touchdowns by a Steelers QB since Kordell Stewart in 2001.

– A positive passing stat for Fields. He has just one interception in the team's first six games, joining Terry Bradshaw as the only Steelers quarterbacks in history to appear in all six of the team's first six games and not throw more than one pick (at least 100 attempts). . Fields threw five touchdowns and one interception this season, the same stats as Bradshaw in 1975.

Kent Graham and Ben Roethlisberger had similar success, but did not play in all six games. Graham appeared in four games in 2000, while Roethlisberger appeared in five games in 2005. Interestingly, the Steelers won the Super Bowl in two of those three previous seasons.

Since 2020, only five NFL QBs have done this: Patrick Mahomes (2020), Brock Purdy (2023), CJ Stroud (2023), Tom Brady (2022) and Carson Wentz (2021). Not a bad list. Buffalo's Josh Allen can join Fields if he keeps a clean sheet against the New York Jets tonight.

– As a team, Pittsburgh ran 35 times for 185 yards and 3 touchdowns yesterday. This is only the third time in the Mike Tomlin era, following the win over the Buffalo Bills in 2016 (Bell finished things off in the snow) and the win over the Seahawks last year.

– For the third straight season, the Steelers have failed to average even one passing touchdown in their first six games. In 2024 there will be five. In 2023 there were five. In 2022 there were four. It is the franchise's first three-season series since 1970–1972, the start of the Terry Bradshaw era.

– LB Patrick Queen led the Steelers with 13 tackles. This marks the highlight of his career and corresponds to a 2021 game against the Green Bay Packers at the Baltimore Ravens.

– TJ Watt is the first Steeler to force two fumbles in a game since… TJ Watt last season. In fact, Watt is the Steeler who has forced two fumbles in a game the last five times. The last non-Watt to achieve this was Ryan Shazier in 2017.

Shazier is also the last Steeler until Watt Sunday to force two fumbles against the run instead of sacks. That means Watt is doing this for the first time. There weren't many individual achievements left on his wish list, but this was one of them.

– This was Watt's fifth career multi-force fumble game, breaking his tie with James Harrison for the most since 1999, as Pro Football Reference reliably reports. The only other Steeler to even play more than one such game during that period is the late Clark Haggans and his two.

– The Raiders got five first downs on their first drive. They only had two goals the rest of the first half.

– After allowing a 56 percent third-down conversion rate to opponents 17 of 30 over the last two weeks, the Raiders were just 2 of 11 on third down.

— Pittsburgh's defense has forced 12 red zone turnovers since last season, the most in the NFL during that span. They got one against the Raiders, Watts FF/DeShon Elliotts FR on the goal line. Not just preventing touchdowns, but keeping all points off the field.

– In what could be the closest race of the season, K Chris Boswell is responsible for 58 points this season. The rest of the team together is responsible for 66. Who will come out on top?