The Pittsburgh Steelers were back at home for an AFC North matchup, this time hosting the Baltimore Ravens in Week 5 of the 2023 NFL season. The Steelers once again started slow, but the defense kept them close and special teams put points on the board which meant the late touchdown was to take the lead.

So without further ado, here are some of the numbers involved in the Steelers Week 5 win over the Ravens.

+2

The Steelers continued to follow form by winning a game where they won the turnover battle. With three takeaways in the game, coming in the form of two forced fumbles with recoveries and one interception, the Steelers scored 12 points following the takeaways. And on the Steelers only turnover of the game, one which occurred on special teams, Steelers responded with a take away of their own. For those who may not know, this turnover margin doesn’t count the Steelers blocked punt and resulting safety because it is not scored as a takeaway despite being just as impactful.

0

While the number zero could represent many things, I’m going to point out three specific ones. First, it’s the number of points the Steelers surrendered in the second half. Sticking with the second half, the Steelers gave up zero 3rd down conversions out of six chances and zero 4th downs on one opportunity which came on the final Ravens offensive play of the game.

13:37

Almost a minute and a half into the fourth quarter, the Steelers had just surrendered a sack to take them out of field goal range and had a 42-yard punt which only netted 22 yards on a touchback. But seeing the Steelers could use a boost, the scoreboard operator queued up Renegade with 13:37 left to go in the game. Working its magic again in 2023, the Steelers forced a 3 & out followed by a blocked punt for a safety. After playing Renegade, the Steelers scored 12 points, never punted the rest of the game, and only gave up 10 net yards.

25

The Baltimore Ravens came into Sunday’s match up with the Steelers averaging 151.25 rushing yards per game which ranked fourth in the NFL. After surrendering 100 rushing yards in the first half, the Steelers rush defense stiffened up and only gave up 25 yards on the ground in the second half despite Baltimore playing with the lead for more than 28 minutes during the half.

-156 vs. +110

It was a tale of two halves for the Pittsburgh Steelers looking at both sides of the ball. Although with the Steelers offense, it wasn’t as much as breaking out in the second half as really struggling in the first 30 minutes. When looking at the two halves of football, the Steelers were on the wrong side of the yardage gained by 156 yards in the first half as Baltimore gained 244 yards of offense to the Steelers 88 yards. But in the second half, the advantage went to the Steelers who outgained the Ravens by 110 yards as they had 201 yards of total offense to the Ravens 91 yards.

96 of 202

Having only 202 net passing yards on the day, a significant portion of the yards came in the fourth quarter. On 10 passing attempts, Kenny Pickett completed six passes where he had 96 net passing yards which averaged 9.60 yards per pass during the fourth quarter. This helped contribute to the Steelers huge discrepancy in the numbers in the final 15 minutes where they outgained the Ravens 114 yards to 32 yards.

7

A lot of things went the right way for the Steelers in this game, one of which was the catching issues by the Ravens receivers. Although it is not an official statistic counted by the NFL, Pro Football Focus reported that the Baltimore Ravens dropped seven passes against the Steelers on Sunday.

146

Of the Steelers 289 yards on offense on Sunday, 146 yards came via George Pickens. Having one rushing attempt for 16 yards, Pickens had 6 receptions on 10 targets for 130 receiving yards and a 41-yard touchdown.

11

The Pittsburgh Steelers did a much better job of getting to the quarterback on Sunday. With four sacks of the day, the Steelers had two by T.J. Watt, one by Alex Highsmith, and one by Kwon Alexander. Additionally, according to the NFL’s NextGEN stats, Alex Highsmith had 11 quarterback pressures during the game.

1

Once again, this is really the only number that matters. The Steelers still struggled on offense, and a lot of crazy situations seemed to go to Steelers way. But the bottom line is, the Pittsburgh Steelers finished the game with a key AFC North victory and pushed their record to 3–2 for the season. Heading into their by week, the Steelers are in first place in the AFC North.

So there are some numbers to help put the Steelers Week 5 victory in perspective. Although there are still legitimate concerns with the Steelers offense, they managed to squeak out another win while they try to get things figured out.

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