Steelers stats through 5 games among best ever

by Joe Kuzma (joe_kuzma) on October 10, 2016

The Pittsburgh Steelers 31-13 final score on Sunday wasn’t the only surprising number to surface following their victory at Heinz Field. Now sitting atop the entire AFC following the win against the New York Jets, the Steelers are trending upward in a number of statistical categories, both individually, and as a team.

Ben Roethlisberger

Big Ben now holds the franchise record for most touchdown passes in the first 5 games of a season with 15. He also extended his franchise record of games with 4 or more touchdown passes, to 12. He also extended his team record of 300-yard passing games to 48.

Ben has also tied an NFL record, held by Peyton Manning, for most consecutive 15-TD pass seasons to begin an NFL career, with 13.

Roethlisberger now has 40 career games with at least 3 touchdown passes; 7th among active players with such games.

Ben is 20-1 (.952) as a starter, at home, in games played in October: the best mark by an NFL quarterback since 1970, with a minimum of 20 starts. Roethlisberger has also thrown at least 3 touchdown passes in 6 consecutive regular season home games, dating back to November 15th, 2015.

Antonio Brown

Antonio Brown reached 7,500 receiving yards in his NFL career on Sunday. He is the 10th active NFL player to reach that mark.

AB broke a tie with Buddy Dial for 5th-most touchdown catches in Steelers history, with 43.

Brown also joined Rod Woodson and Antwaan Randle El as the only Steelers with 1,600 punt return yards. Woodson leads with 2,362, while Brown trails Randle El’s 1,650 by 37 yards (with 1,613).

Sammie Coates

Coates had his first 100-yard receiving game, and first touchdown reception on Sunday. His big game, combined with Antonio Brown to mark the 2nd time in Steelers history that 2 receivers each have 400 yards in the first 5 games of the season; since John Stallworth and Louis Lipps combined to do the same in 1984.

Coates 72 yard touchdown reception marked his sixth catch of 40 or more yards in 2016.

Le’Veon Bell

Bell set a regular season single-game high with 9 receptions on Sunday, and has posted at least 100 yards from scrimmage in 23 regular season games thus far in his career.

Jesse James

The Steelers tight end joins Eric Green (7) and Heath Miller (6) as 3rd-most all-time in team history through the first 13 games of a career, with 4 touchdown receptions. James also tied his career best with 5 receptions, a feat he also reached in Week 1 against Washington.

Heinz Field

The Steelers have won each of their last seven regular season games at home, scoring at least 20 points in each.

Pittsburgh’s win on Sunday marked their 90th regular season victory at Heinz Field, improving their home record to 90-31-1 (.680).

Team Totals

The Steelers 139 points through the first five games of the season is the fourth-highest total in team history. They have outscored their opponents by 32 points in the first half of those games, through 2016.

The victory on Sunday marked the 13th time since 1970, that the Steelers have started a season 4-1.

They have made the playoffs 11 out of 12 of those last starts.