The Pittsburgh Steelers took to the field for their final contest of the 2023 regular season. Although they wouldn’t have been eliminated with a loss, getting the win in Baltimore improved the Steelers odds of making the postseason based on the rest of the action around the NFL. The important thing is the Steelers did their part as now they simply wait for the rest of Week 18 to finish.

So without further ado, here are some of the numbers involved in the Steelers Week 18 win over the Ravens.

0

In a game where it felt like the Steelers were going to come out on the wrong end of the turnover margin, they came up with the last takeaway in the game to push it even on the night. Each team lost two fumbles in the game, but the Steelers were the only team to have any points off of turnovers as their field goal in the fourth quarter came off of a fumble recovery. On the other end of the spectrum, one of the Steelers turnovers potentially cost them three points at the very end of the first half where they would have been able to attempt a long field goal. While the Ravens lost both of their fumbles, the Steelers actually had six fumbles throughout the game with the  3being credited to Mason Rudolph, 2 to Jaylen Warren, and one to Calvin Austin, but only lost two of the six.

155

In a game that was full of horrendous weather conditions, the Steelers did their part to win the game by controlling the ground attack and rushing for 155 yards on 39 carries for a 4.0 YPC. Najee Harris lead the way with 112 rushing yards on 26 carries and a touchdown.

71

The biggest play of the game for either team was the 71 yard catch and run touchdown by Diontae Johnson. On the first play the fourth quarter, Mason Rudolph hit Johnson in the middle of the field as he broke free for the only touchdown scored in the second half of the game.

2

I was very surprised when Jeff Hartman brought up on the Steelers Post Game Show podcast that Mason Rudolph was 18 for 20 in passing attempts and only had two incompletions. Both incompletions came in the first half and were on third down. The first incompletion was on the Steelers first possession that was almost intercepted. The other incompletion was on the next to last play of the first quarter during the Steelers third possession where Mason Rudolph took a deep shot to Diontae Johnson down the sideline. In the second half Rudolph completed all of his passes but only had four passing attempts with one being the 71-yard touchdown and the other three going to Steelers running backs.

-127

The Steelers did not have a good day punting the football as they were out-punted by 127 yards with the Ravens only having one more punt than the Steelers. With 250 yards on six punts, the Steelers had a 41.7 gross punting average while Baltimore’s was 53.9 coming on 377 yards on 7 punts.

+92

While the Steelers lost the punting game from a gross perspective, the Steelers actually had a better net putting on the day thanks to five punt returns for 92 yards. Although the Steelers only had a 38.3 net punting average (brought down because of a touchback), the Ravens’ was only 37.9 due to all the Steelers return yards. While mentioning the return game, it was also a good heads-up play by kick returner Godwin Igwebuike to put his feet out of bounds and reach back in to touch the kickoff to force the penalty and give the Steelers possession at the 40-yard line.  When it came to defending returns, the Ravens had no punt or kick returns during the game.

0

I usually don’t like to use this article to complain about officiating, but I’m going to point out an anomaly. The Steelers did a nice job on defense of not shooting themselves in the foot as they had zero defensive penalties in the game. But so did the Ravens. In fact, there were no live-ball penalties against either team on offense as the three offenses penalties consisted of a delay a game by each team and an illegal snap by Mason Cole. The only live-action penalties in the game came on special teams. So even though players were being tackled by facemasks and there was plenty of holding going on throughout the game, the officiating crew never called a live-action penalty on the offense or any defensive penalties.

5-1

With the win, the Steelers completed the season sweep of the Ravens as they came out on top of both games by a score of 17–10. With the Steelers also sweeping the Cincinnati Bengals and splitting with the Cleveland Browns, the Steelers finished 5–1 in the AFC North during the 2023 season. This is the Steelers best record in the AFC North since they were 6–0 in 2017.

106

On the Ravens final drive the game, quarterback Tyler Huntley scrambled four times for a total of 25 yards. Holding the Ravens to only 81 rushing yards prior to this drive, the Steelers were on the verge of becoming the first team all season to hold the Ravens to under 100 rushing yards. But nursing a two-score lead, the Steelers were much more concerned about winning the game and not giving the Ravens time to score twice which allowed them to reach 106 rushing yards.

10

The Steelers added another tally into the win column to finish the 2023 season with a 10–7 record. It is the second time in the past six seasons where the Steelers have reached double digit wins as they were 12–4 in the 2020 season.

So there are some numbers to help put the Steelers Week 18 win in perspective. The Steelers still need help to get into the postseason, so now Steelers fans simply have to wait and see how the cards fall.

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