The Pittsburgh Steelers were home for their second game in five days for Week 14 once again facing an opponent with only two wins. But a team who had struggled mightily to put points on the board dropped 21 on the Steelers in the first half which was enough to secure the victory.

So without further ado, here are some of the numbers involved in the Steelers Week 14 loss to the Patriots.

0

The Steelers ended the night even in the turnover department as they threw an interception and had an interception of their own. While some may believe the Steelers had a turnover on their final desperation play of the game, Allen Robinson was ruled down before he attempted to lateral the ball. Even though the two teams were even when it came to turnovers, they were not when it came to the results. The Patriots turned the short field they achieved from intercepting Mitchell Trubisky into it seven points where the Steelers squandered their opportunity by failing to convert on fourth down and ended up with zero points off of turnovers.

22:22

The New England Patriots struggled to score points throughout the 2023 NFL season. In fact, they’ve only scored over 20 points one time prior to Week 14 which was when they scored 29 points in Buffalo Bills. But against the Steelers, it took the Patriots less than a quarter and a half to put up 21 points of the board. It was 22:22 into the game when the Patriots eclipsed the 20-point mark as there was 7:38 remaining in the second quarter.

2.90

After having a string of quality rushing performances, the Steelers struggled to run the ball against the Patriots defense that was ranked third in rushing yards coming into the game. The Steelers only managed to run for 2.9 yards per carry with 82 rushing yards on 28 rushing attempts. Mitch Trubisky was the leading rusher with 30 yards on 8 carries while Najee Harris had 29 yards on 12 carries.

15

Between the two teams, there were 15 punts in this game. The Patriots punted nine times for a 43.9 average while the Steelers punted six times for 44.5 yards per punt . Additionally, the Steelers also turned the ball over twice on downs. The Patriots had 5 three and outs in the game while the Steelers had 4.

90. 36%

For the second-straight week, the Pittsburgh Steelers gave up a big game to a player who they drafted in 2017. JuJu Smith-Schuster had his biggest receiving game of the season as previously his best output was 51 yards against the Washington Commanders. But against the Steelers, Smith-Schuster had 90 receiving yards on four receptions with a 37 yard long. It was the most receiving yards JuJu had in a game since Week 7 of last season when he was with the Kansas City Chiefs.

1

The Steelers defense really turned things around in the second half as they shut out the Patriots to at least give the offense a chance of winning the game. In the second half, the Patriots had six positions but did not have any more than one first down on any drive. The Steelers held the Patriots to only 84 offensive yards in the second half and the only drive that entered Steelers territory was New England’s final possession that started on the Steelers side of the field.

1-5

The Steelers cleaned up one aspect of their game as they only had one accepted penalty on the night for 5 yards. The Steelers did have an illegal formation call but the penalty was declined. The only accepted penalty was quite controversial as the Steelers were called for a false start on the long snapper on a punt that appeared New England jumped across giving the Steelers a first down. Even though the player reactions on both sides believed the penalty was on the Patriots, the officials didn’t see it as normal people should and made the call against the Steelers.

7:09

The Steelers had the longest position from a time standpoint in the game, and by a large margin. On the first position of the second half, the Steelers had the ball for 7:07. But down by two scores, the Steelers didn’t move the ball nearly as far as needed as, even though they were approaching the midpoint of the quarter, as they barely crossed midfield and was pushed back into their own territory before they were forced to punt.

20

While I like to focus on the current game, it can’t go without saying that the Steelers lost back-to-back home games against teams who had a combined record of 4 wins and 20 losses. It is the first time in NFL history a team with more than a .500 record lost to teams who were eight games below .500 in back-to-back weeks.

0

For the sixth time this season, the Pittsburgh Steelers were not able to put a tally in the win column. After dropping two games in which they were heavily favored, the Steelers will likely struggle to add more tallies to the win column for the rest of the season.

So there are some numbers to help put the Steelers Week 14 loss in perspective. After dropping two games in a row, there isn’t much hope to turn things around going forward.

So what numbers from Thursday night’s game stand out to you? Please leave your thoughts in the comments below.