The Pittsburgh Steelers were on the road for the first of their two Saturday games in a showdown of two teams fighting for the 2023 postseason. Despite getting a lead, the Steelers took another bad loss and dropped to .500 on the season.

So without further ado, here are some of the numbers involved in the Steelers Week 15 loss to the Colts.

-3

The Steelers didn’t give themselves much of a chance in this game by turning the ball over three times and having no takeaways of their own. The Steelers three turnovers are the most had in a game since Week 14 of the 2022 season when Mitch Trubisky threw three interceptions coming off the bench in the loss to the Baltimore Ravens. While the Steelers had two “turnover-like” plays in a blocked punt and a fourth-down stop at the goal line, it still wasn’t enough to pull them even in this department.

15:53

On the first play of the second quarter, the Steelers blocked a punt and recovered the ball at the Colts 1-yard line. Two plays later they scored the touchdown and took a 13–0 lead in the game. While one would expect this to be just the beginning for a team getting to a two-score lead, it was actually more the beginning of the end.

30

After jumping out to the lead to start the second quarter, the Steelers surrendered 30 straight points to finish out the game. It was the third time this season the Steelers have surrendered 30 points and was the most points the Steelers have surrendered over the last 45 minutes of the game this season.

3rd & 3 at the 33

There was a very key play for the Steelers late in the first half with 0:58 remaining in the second quarter. When facing a third and three on their own 33-yard line, Mitch Trubisky could not connect with a wide-open Pat Freiermuth over the middle for a first down. Not only did this play not keep the Steelers drive going in order to extend their lead, it gave the ball back to the Colts to take the lead themselves before halftime.

3 for 74

When the Colts received the Steelers punt at their own 26-yard line with 0:44 remaining in the first half, they executed what would eventually be the game-winning drive. Only needing three plays to go 74 yards, and also aided by 26-yard pass interference penalty, the Colts only needed 0:22 to find the end zone and take the lead for good.

170

The Colts gashed the Steelers for 170 rushing yards in the game on 34 carries for a 5.0 YPC. Despite only having 43 rushing yards in the first half, the Colts had 127 rushing yards in the second half despite losing running back Zack Moss early in the game. Instead, the Colts had running back to Trey Sermon go for 88 yards on 17 carries which was the second-most rushing yards of his career only behind an 89-yard rushing performance in 2021 for the San Francisco 49ers. The other running back for the Colts, Tyler Goodson, had 69 yards on 11 carries. These were his first NFL rushing attempts and yards of his career.

74

Despite having a third-most rushing yards in the NFL over the last five games, the Pittsburgh Steelers can only manage 74 rushing yards against the 26th ranked Indianapolis Colts defense who were giving up 131.5 yards per game coming into Saturday. The Steelers 74 yards came on 24 rushing attempts for a 3.1 YPC. Leading the way was Jaylen Warren with 40 yards on 10 carries for a 4.0 YPC. But 13 of Warren‘s 40 yards came on the final two plays of a game when the outcome was not in doubt.

8-101

After only having one accepted penalty the previous game, the Steelers did not play a clean brand of football on Saturday. With eight accepted penalties, the Steelers gave up 101 yards on the day in penalties compared to the Colts who only had two penalties for 10 yards.

23 to 7

Once the Indianapolis Colts had the lead in the second half, they changed their style of football despite the Steelers scraping the bottom of the barrel at the safety position with the injury to Minkah Fitzpatrick and the ejection of Damontae Kazee. In the second half, the Colts only attempted seven passes with four completions while having 23 rushing attempts.

3

I’m changing up the number for this last category. Instead saying the Steelers didn’t get a tally in the win column, this is the third game in a row the Steelers took the loss.

So there are some numbers to help put the Steelers Week 15 loss in perspective. After dropping three games in a row, there isn’t much hope to turn things around going forward.

So what numbers from Saturdays game stand out to you? Please leave your thoughts in the comments below.