Matt Williamson
SERIES HISTORY
The first game between these two teams took place in November of 1970 with Pittsburgh prevailing in that matchup. That began a nine-game winning streak for the Steelers against the Jets, who finally got their first victory over Pittsburgh in 1988. But after that game, the Steelers went on another winning streak, this time of five games. That gave the Steelers wins in 14 of the first 15 meetings. The most recent matchup between the Jets and Steelers took place in 2022, with New York winning that game 24-20. Overall, Pittsburgh leads this series 20-7 including their two postseason matchups. The Steelers won both of those playoff games against New York, including the AFC Championship game following the 2010 season. That was last time the Jets went to the postseason.
MATCHUP OVERVIEW
The Steelers have split their only two home games this year. New York opened the season splitting its only two true home games and have been on the road ever since, including a Week 5 loss to the Vikings in England. The Jets will be operating on a short week after a loss against Buffalo on Monday Night. New York is on a three-game losing streak, but has outscored its opponents by five points this season. The Steelers have a plus-38 point differential. Last week was Jeff Ulbrich’s first game as an NFL head coach with the Jets. Last week was Mike Tomlin’s 299th game, including the postseason. The Steelers have made the playoffs the last seven times when starting the season at 4-2 or better since 2010. Pittsburgh’s three wins in 2024 with 300 or fewer offensive yards is the most in the NFL. The Steelers have held their opponent to under 300 yards in four games this season, most in the league. The Steelers are 11-2 since 2023 when allowing two or fewer sacks. They are 3-7 when allowing three or more, including their victory last week. Pittsburgh now has a plus-7-turnover ratio. Only the Packers and Bills are better. Four defenses have more takeaways and only three have more interceptions. The Steelers have only thrown one interception in 2024, and only three teams have fewer turnovers. New York sits at minus-1 in turnover differential. The Jets only have two interceptions. Pittsburgh’s defense has four red zone takeaways after DeShon Elliott’s fumble recovery to start the fourth quarter in Las Vegas. That is the most in the NFL. Russell Wilson has a career touchdown to interception ratio of 3.2 to 1. That is the third-highest in NFL history behind only Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes. Pittsburgh allows 3.6 yards per carry. Only the Ravens defense is better. The Steelers produce 4.0 yards per carry on offense. The Steelers have produced 276 more rushing yards than their opponents this season and four more rushing touchdowns. New York gives up 37 more rushing yards per game than its opponents. The Jets have produced 410 more passing yards than their opponents this season and six more passing touchdowns. New York’s Garrett Wilson averages .29 targets per route run compared to .23 for new teammate Davante Adams and .28 for the Steelers’ George Pickens. In terms of yards per route run, Wilson comes in at 1.77 compared to 1.85 for Adams and 2.4 for Pickens. Pittsburgh’s time of possession is now at 32:02 per game. Only four teams possess the football more. The Jets are 16th at 30:30 per game. The Jets have yet to convert a fourth-down attempt this season. Pittsburgh has gained 18 first down by penalty this season. Its opponents have collectively just five. New York’s opponents have eight more first downs via penalties than the Jets. On average, Pittsburgh’s opponents are committing 14.6 yards of penalties more than the Steelers per game. New York was flagged 11 times last week in a game against Buffalo that combined to have the most accepted penalties (22) and penalty yards (204) in any game this season. For the season, the Jets have committed 50 penalties. Only Houston has committed more, and New York’s 462 accepted penalty yards is the highest in the league. The Jets’ eight defensive pass interference penalties is the most in the NFL. The Steelers and Jets defense have each allowed just nine touchdowns. The Chargers and Titans defenses are the only ones with fewer touchdowns allowed and both those teams have had their bye week. The Jets have 14 former first-round picks on their current roster, the most in the league. New York currently has a 13-year playoff drought. That is in the longest currently in the league. Denver is the second with an eight-year drought. Next in line is Atlanta and Carolina at six years. No other franchise is more than three years removed from a postseason appearance. The Jets have lost seven-straight road games against teams that are 2or more games over .500. 75% of the teams that started the season 5-2 since 1990 went on to make the playoffs and 43.5% won their division. At 4-3, those percentages move to 49.5% and 22% respectively. Pittsburgh has the NFL’s best second-half point differential at plus-44. The Steelers average 1.57 points per drive (25th) in the first half compared to 2.29 (8th) in the second half.
WHEN PITTSBURGH HAS THE BALL
Pittsburgh averages 4.8 yards per play. The Jets allowed 6.0 yards per play last week but give up 4.9 for the season. New York is giving up 18 points per game. The only defenses better are the Chargers, Steelers, Vikings, Broncos, Bears and Chiefs. Only 23.2% of the drives against the Jets reach the red zone, second-best in the NFL. The Steelers are throwing the ball on 47.1% of their snaps. Only Baltimore throws it less. Just four defenses are seeing a higher percentage of run plays than New York. The Steelers are first in the league in their usage of 13 Personnel (17%) as well as 14 Personnel (2%). They are sixth in their usage of 11 Personnel with a sixth offensive lineman (2.5%) as well as fifth in their usage of 12 Personnel with a sixth offensive lineman (4%). Therefore, the Steelers offense is 28th in their usage of 11 Personnel (42%). New York’s defense is facing 12 Personnel 13.8% of the time, the 27th-highest rate in the league. Wilson threw 26 touchdown passes in 2023 for the Broncos and didn’t play in the final two games of the season. The Steelers had 25 touchdown passes combined in the 2022 and 2023 seasons. Pittsburgh has five touchdown passes through six games in 2024. Justin Fields has thrown for 156 or less yards in four of his six starts. His 3.04 second average time to throw is the fourth-highest in the league. New York’s opponents are getting the ball out in 2.93 seconds on average. Only the Saints are facing a higher average time to throw. New York allows just 5.4 yards per pass attempt. Only the Titans and Broncos are better. Only four defenses allow a better completion percentage than New York. The average depth of target against the Jets defense is 9.31 yards. Only the Texans’ is higher. Pickens’ 363 receiving yards is the most of any receiver without a touchdown. He has a 28.9% target share this year and hasn’t dipped below a 22% share in any game this year. The Jets allow 6.5 yards per target to outside receivers, fifth-best in the NFL. Pat Freiermuth, along with Cole Kmet and George Kittle are the only tight ends with 20-plus receptions and two or more touchdowns. Freiermuth has aligned out wide on 60 occasions this season, the most of any tight end. Only Jared Goff (35.4%) is using play-action at a higher percentage of his pass attempts than Fields at 32.3%. The Jets’ defense averages 3.3 sacks per game, fourth-most in the league. New York has the second-most sacks in the league without blitzing (13) and the league’s highest sack rate (9.5%) when only rushing four defenders. Will McDonald has at least one sack in four of his past five games. McDonald’s seven sacks this season is second-most in the league behind only Aiden Hutchinson. McDonald leads the way with 4.5 more sacks than any other Jets player, but 11 Jets defenders have a sack this season. Najee Harris ran for 106 yards last week. It was the first time he cleared 86 total yards in a game this season. Fields had 59 rushing yards in Las Vegas. Wilson averaged 22.7 rushing yards per game last year and 28.2 for his career. He has 29 rushing touchdowns and 13 over the past five seasons. With Freiermuth on the field, Pittsburgh averages 4.1 yards per designed rush attempt on 121 carries. Without him on the field, that number falls to 3.1 on 48 rush attempts. Just 13.1% of runs against the Jets have resulted in a loss of yardage or no gain. That is sixth-lowest percentage in the league. Last week was the first time all season that Pittsburgh started the same offensive line combination two games in a row. The Steelers have started four different offensive line combinations and four Steelers offensive linemen made their first career start in the first four weeks of the season. If Zach Frazier can’t go this week that will go to five different starting offensive line combinations. Fields’ six fumbles is the most in the league. The Jets have allowed an Explosive Play Rate (Gains of 15+ yards) at a 7.8% clip. Denver and Kansas City are the only two defenses better. Pittsburgh’s offense is generating an explosive play 7.7% of the time. The Jets defense has the second-best passing success rate but is 27th in rushing success rate.
WHEN NEW YORK HAS THE BALL
New York averaged 6.7 yards per play last week, but its season long average is 4.9. Pittsburgh surrenders 4.8 yards per play. Only six defenses are better. Pittsburgh is allowing just 14.8 points per game. Only the Chargers are better. The Steelers allow just 2.8 scoring plays per game, third-best in the league. After averaging 2.31 points per drive (10th) over the first three weeks of the season, New York has averaged 1.31 (29th) over the past three weeks. The Jets are throwing the ball on 64.3% of their snaps. Only Seattle and Dallas throw it more. In their last three games, New York has thrown it on 71% of its offensive plays. New York uses 12 Personnel at the league’s fifth-highest rate (28.5%). The Steelers allow their opponent to convert a set of downs into a new set of downs or a touchdown at a 69% rate. Only 10 defenses are better. Last week the Jets had multiple receivers with 100-plus yards and a ball carrier with 100-plus rushing yards for the first time since Week 2 of 2016. Rodgers has two or more touchdown passes in four of his past five games. He threw for 294 yards last week, his highest total in a Jets uniform. His 6.4 yards per attempt is only higher than six qualified quarterbacks, and Rodgers’ 61.8% completion percentage is only better than five passers. Rodgers’ 241 drop backs are the fifth-most in the league. His 2.55 second average time to throw is only higher than Baker Mayfield and Andy Dalton. On Monday Night, Rodgers has season highs in the use of pre-snap motion (44.7% of dropbacks), play-action (31.4%), and drop backs out of the shotgun (89.8%). While using play-action, Rodgers was 7 of 11 for 131 yards (11.9 yards per attempt). With motion, he was 13 of 17 for 168 yards (9.9). Without either, Rodgers was 9 for 15 for 109 yards (6.9). The Steelers allow 9.2 yards per attempt (23rd) on play-action passes and 7.7 yards per attempt using motion (23rd). Garrett Wilson was targeted 23 times in Week 5 against Minnesota and 10 times last week. His 66 targets are the most in the NFL, and only Chris Godwin has more receptions. He finished last week’s game with eight catches for 107 yards and a touchdown. Allen Lazard’s five receiving touchdowns is the most in the league tied with four other pass catchers. To this point, Lazard and Mike Williams have combined for 26.2% of the team targets. Rodgers and Adams played together in Green Bay from 2014 to 2021. Rodgers completed 615 passes for 7,517 yards and 68 touchdowns to Adams during that time. Between 2018 and 2021, Rodgers targeted Adams 599 times, completing 425 for 5,257 yards and 47 receiving touchdowns. All four of those categories were first in the NFL during that time. Including the playoffs, only four quarterback/receiver duos have connected for more touchdowns than Rodgers and Adams. With two more touchdowns between these two, they will tie Ben Roethlisberger and Antonio Brown for fourth all-time. Adams is four touchdowns away from reaching 100 for his career. Only eight wide receivers have eached that mark in NFL history. Since 2018, Adams leads the NFL in receptions (653) and receiving touchdowns (70) and is second in receiving yards (8,179) behind only Tyreek Hill. Adams has 100-plus receptions in each of the past four seasons. The Steelers have allowed 10.4 yards per target to outside receivers. The Steelers have allowed 5.7 receptions per game to tight ends, 27th in the league. As a receiver last week, Breece Hall was targeted 10 times, catching eight passes for 107 yards. Rodgers has been sacked multiple times in every game this season except for Week 1, when he was only sacked once. Over the past three games Rodgers has been sacked 11 times. Pittsburgh is blitzing on 20.4% of opposing drop backs. That is the sixth-lowest percentage in the NFL. On third downs, the Steelers’ blitz rate is 9.3%, the lowest in the league. Xavier McKinney (5) and Kerby Joseph (4) are the only players in the league with more interceptions than Steelers cornerback Donte Jackson, who has three. The Jets produce just 3.9 yards per rush attempt. The only offenses worse are Dallas, Las Vegas and Chicago. New York’s offense is the only one in the league that ranks bottom five in yards before contact per carry (.6), stuff rate (24%), and contact behind the line of scrimmage (49.6%). In Week 6, Hall had 23 rushing yards. In Week 5, he had just four. Before last week Hall was averaging 39.4 rushing yards per game. Against the Bills on Monday night, Hall had 44 rushing yards in the first quarter and finished the game with 113 yards on the ground and 220 yards from scrimmage. Hall received 18 of a possible 21 rushing attempts on Monday Night. He led all NFL running backs in snap share in Week 6. Still, Hall only averages 3.7 yards per carry this year. Hall and Alvin Kamara are the only two players with 300-plus rushing yards and 200-plus receiving yards. Braelon Allen is the Jets second-leading rusher with 151 yards but has a better yards per carry (4.3) than Hall. Allen is the youngest player in the NFL and doesn’t turn 21 years old until January. The Steelers defense allowed just 57 rushing yards last week. They are third in defensive rushing success rate. The running back position averages just 3.5 yards per carry against Pittsburgh, fourth-best in the NFL. The Steelers give up 2.5 yards after first contact, also fourth. New York has 13 rushes of 10-plus yards. Only the Chiefs, Rams and Cowboys have fewer. Pittsburgh has only allowed 15 such runs. Only six defenses are better. 19.6% of runs against the Steelers have resulted in a loss of yardage or no gain. That is sixth-best in the league. Pittsburgh’s average of 2.64 rushing yards after first contact allowed is fifth-best. T.J. Watt has 30 forced fumbles since 2017, most in the league during that time. He is also one of three defensive players this year to have multiple tackles for loss in three games this year along with Maxx Crosby and Kyle Van Noy. The Steelers are allowing a 38.9% red zone conversion rate. Only the Broncos and Saints are better. During the Jets’ three-game losing streak, they are converting just 33% of their red zone opportunities into touchdowns which is third worst since Week 4. Pittsburgh has allowed an Explosive Play Rate (Gains of 15-plus yards) at an 8.5% clip. The Broncos, Chiefs, Jets and Colts are the only defenses better.
SPECIAL TEAMS
In terms of EPA, the Steelers have the best special teams in the NFL, and only the Cowboys gain more value from field goals. The Jets are last in EPA from field goals. There have only been three missed field goals in Steelers games this season, one by Pittsburgh. The Jets missed two field goals last week and have missed four out of 12 attempts. Neither team has yet to miss an extra point. Connor Heyward and Miles Killebrew have played 105 special teams snaps. Payton Wilson and Mark Robinson have played 104. No one else has played more than 75. Seven teams, including Pittsburgh and New York, have blocked a punt this season.
Most Memorable Moment:
Jan. 23, 2011: AFC Championship Game: Steelers 24, Jets 19, Heinz Field
This home victory propelled the Steelers to Super Bowl XLV, a game they lost to Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers. New York was the sixth seed in the playoffs. The Jets knocked off the Colts in Indianapolis by one point and then New England, the top seed, by a touchdown to advance to this game. The Jets eliminated Peyton Manning and Tom Brady before finally falling to a Ben Roethlisberger-led team that had beaten the Ravens the previous week. Pittsburgh jumped all over the Jets in this game and quickly took a 24-0 lead. This game was 24-3 at the half, but New York scored on the first drive of the third quarter. While it got very interesting down the stretch, the Steelers held on to win thanks to their running game. The Jets haven’t played in a playoff game since.
KEY MATCHUPS
Jets Wide Receivers vs. Steelers Cornerbacks – Joey Porter often travels with the opponent’s best wide receiver. A few days ago, that would have clearly been Garrett Wilson. But now, after trading for Davante Adams, an exceptional wideout in his own right, that becomes much less clear. Perhaps the Steelers keep their cornerbacks in a left/right alignment this week rather than having Porter travel.
Steelers WR George Pickens vs. Jets CB Ahmad Gardner – The Jets usually keep their cornerbacks in a left-right alignment rather than having their top cover man, Gardner, travel with opposing top options. Pickens is clearly the Steelers’ top wide receiver and with DJ Reed questionable for this contest, might the Jets ask Gardner to follow Pickens on Sunday Night?
