5 NFL Stats to Know Through Week 11

Big Ben Notched His 31st Career 4th-Quarter Comeback Victory

There is a famous cliché in sports about a game being a “game of two halves.” Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger can certainly attest to that after Week 11, when he put a dreadful first-half performance behind him to rally his team to a come-from-behind victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars. At the interval, Roethlisberger had 53 passing yards and 2 interceptions.

By our metrics, his performance looks even worse. He had -0.71 Passing Net Expected Points (NEP) per Drop Back through two quarters, meaning he was losing more than an expected point per every two drop backs.

In the second half, he flipped the script, amassing 261 passing yards. He threw another interception, but he added two passing scores (as well as the game-winning touchdown on the ground). His second half Passing NEP per Drop Back improved to 0.22. He finished at -0.14, the second-lowest figure for any quarterback who attempted at least 30 passes in Week 11. (Carson Wentz had -0.38 for the Philadelphia Eagles.)

Roethlisberger has 31 fourth-quarter comeback victories in his career, the same number as Drew Brees. These two trail only Tom Brady (35) and Peyton Manning (42) for the most in NFL history.