Kovacevic: Steelers as dogs? Chill out with 20 cold, hard facts

By Dejan Kovacevic

Dec 17, 2017 • 12:00 am

8.1K

It's hopeless, I tell you. The more research I do, including deep into history, the more I'm beginning to share in the Nation's collective Little Brother complex, combined with the accompanying preemptive despair.

The Steelers clearly are inferior in every facet, as these 20 opinion-free facts will illustrate:

• The Steelers are 11-2. That's the NFL's best record, tied with our commonwealth's other football franchise, but that one just lost its starting quarterback for the season. The Patriots are 10-3.

• The Steelers have the AFC's best record, both overall and, at 8-1, within the conference. The Patriots are second in both categories.

• The Steelers are the league's only team with a perfect record within their division at 5-0, with one more of those lingering against the 0-13 Browns. The Patriots just lost within their division, Monday night in Miami.

• The Steelers have an eight-game winning streak. Only one other team in the league, the Chargers, has had one even half that long. Theirs was four before losing Saturday. No other team has one longer than two. The Patriots' streak is one loss.

• The Steelers' victory Sunday against the Ravens sealed their 23rd division title since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger. No team, including the Patriots, has more in that time.

• The Steelers have won six Super Bowls, more than any team. The Patriots have won five.

• The Steelers have had one family ownership since they were born in 1933, three head coaches -- Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher, Mike Tomlin -- since 1969. The Patriots have had one head coach since 2000 -- Bill Belichick -- a dozen since Noll was hired.

• The Steelers have sold every ticket to every home game, both at Three Rivers Stadium and Heinz Field, since November of 1972. (The visitor for the last non-sellout? New England.) The Patriots have sold every ticket to every home game since 1994.

• The Steelers have won 114 regular-season games -- plus six division titles, two AFC championships and a Super Bowl -- in Tomlin's first 11 years. That win total ties Tony Dungy, Mike McCarthy and George Seifert for third-most in any NFL head coach's first 11 years. Belichick spent his first five years in Cleveland and had four losing records.

• The Steelers have won five of their past six games by five or fewer points, needing last-minute field goals in four of those. In the overall picture, the Steelers' seven wins against teams with winning records is tied for the most by any NFL team since the 1970 merger, a mark that could be broken today.

• The Steelers have the No. 2 passer in the league in Ben Roethlisberger, the No. 1 rusher in Le'Veon Bell and the No. 1 receiver in Antonio Brown. The Patriots have the No. 1 passer in Tom Brady, the No. 22 rusher in Dion Lewis and the No. 30 receiver in Brandin Cooks.

• The Steelers have a running back, Bell, whose 75 catches are 20 more than anyone on the New England roster. Rob Gronkowski has 55, Cooks 54.

• The Steelers' franchise quarterback, Roethlisberger, is fresh off a 44-completion, 506-yard performance against Baltimore that made both franchise and NFL history, the former for the numbers themselves, the latter for becoming the first player ever with three 500-plus yard games in his career. The Patriots' franchise quarterback, Brady, is fresh off his three lowest outputs of the season, including 24-of-43 for 227 yards with two interceptions to one touchdown Monday in Miami.

• The Steelers have seen Roethlisberger's numbers rise incrementally all season and peak Sunday. Brady, coincidence or not, has seen his performance dip in the three weeks since his brief appearance on the Patriots' injury report, during which he has been seen regularly flexing his right hand. In his first 10 games, he was averaging 314.7 passing yards, but the past three has seen that at 239.3. Specifically on passes that go 15-plus yards in the air, he has zero touchdowns and four interceptions.

• The Steelers' defense is eighth-best in the NFL at preventing third-down conversions at 39.6 percent. The Patriots, without Gronkowski, were 0 for 11 on third down Monday in Miami.

• The Steelers' 41 sacks are second-most in the NFL. Brady's reputation has long been that he doesn't like pressure up the middle. The Steelers' top two in sacks are interior lineman Cam Heyward, with nine, and inside linebacker Vince Williams, with seven.

• The Steelers rank fourth in total offense, averaging 381.2 yards per game. The Patriots rank 29th in total defense, allowing an average of 374.6 yards per game. The Steelers just totaled 39 points and 545 yards against a Baltimore defense that entered as the league's third-stingiest.

• The Steelers' running back, Bell, leads the NFL in all rushing yardage categories. The Patriots' defense has the worst yards-allowed-per-carry average in the league at 5.0. The Browns' figure is 3.3. Linebacker Kyle Van Noy, New England's top run-stopper, was declared out Saturday because of a calf injury. Defensive tackle Alan Branch, New England's top run-stopper up front, won't play because of a knee injury.

• The Steelers played Sunday night at home. The Patriots played Monday night in Florida and lost a day of preparation. The previous week, they were in Buffalo. Two weeks before that, they were in Mexico City. The week before that, they were in Denver, another high-altitude setting.

• The Steelers have five of their final seven games at Heinz Field and will have logged the fewest travel miles in the NFL this season, at 6,694. The Patriots will be playing a rare third consecutive road game, not counting the journey south of the border. Over the past three years across the NFL, the team playing a third consecutive road game is 13-23.

The Steelers will lose. Not by the 2.5 points the Vegas betting line is giving the Patriots on the road, but by about a billion. It only makes sense.

WHAT'S BREWING

• Our Christmas gift subscriptions are here! Buy one! Or more!

• This weekend's Site Stuff introduces our new promo videos for our staffers, beginning with Matt Sunday.

• We've ramped up our Steelers coverage the past few days, as we hope you've noticed, treating Patriots week almost like a playoff. In addition to the column above, Dale Lolley offers his unrivaled Kickoff preview, Christopher Carter has a new Video Classroom just below, and Greg Bedard of Boston Sports Journal came up with the cool idea for him and me to trade places with Live Qs yesterday. Here was Greg's session with our readers.

• Dale and I will both be part of our TV partner WPXI's 'Subway Final Word' tonight at midnight. It will be live, of course, following the Sunday night game.

VIDEO

Carter's Video Classroom gets physical with the Patriots: