This post was originally published on this site
This column will probably generate some hate mail directed my way, but try and keep an open mind on this opinion piece as I vent about the collapse of the Pittsburgh Steelers 2024 season.
Pittsburgh started hot. A lot of analysts didn’t see that coming, but here at SCU we had a strong feeling that the team would bolt into the bye week with a winning record. My cohost Brian E. Roach and I were more bullish on this season than most, feeling the Steelers had a team capable of contending for a Super Bowl.
There was only one problem: a stretch of three games within eleven days. Okay, maybe two problems, since the Steelers didn’t play an AFC North division opponent until Week 11. That setup for HBO’s Hard Knocks takes a backseat to a larger issue during the home stretch of the season.
As Super Bowl LIX looms closer this weekend, one can only look at the participants in this big game as a glaring eyesore on the Steelers calendar. Headed into the 2024 season, we all knew how bad the eleven-day stretch was going to be, with two road games and a home contest played on, and broadcast exclusively by Netflix, on Christmas Day.
Yet, I’m not sure anyone could’ve envisioned the opponents in two of those three games – the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles – playing for the Lombardi trophy. That is, except for the NFL schedule makers.
The schedule makers are aware of every hurdle, every prediction, every revenge game, and every storyline possible when they structure the weekly matchups. They’re well aware that all three teams in that triple shot against the Steelers were playoff teams one year ago. They’re also cognoscente that the Chiefs are back-to-back Super Bowl Champions.
Even Vegas has a strong understanding of how the NFL might play out. FanDuel’s analysis of NFL matchups had the Chiefs and Eagles among the favorites to win this year’s big game. Yes, sometimes those sites get it wrong, but not often enough that they’re losing money!
I know a lot of this comes off as crying over spilled milk at this juncture. The Steelers shot themselves in their foot several times as they spiraled into a five-game losing streak to finish the season.
Naysayers will quip, “But Joe, they have to play who’s in front of them!” Others will critique how the other Christmas Day teams – the Baltimore Ravens, Houston Texans, and Chiefs – all had to play three games in eleven days too. However, those teams had an easier path through a similar slate.
The Chiefs, for example, started their eleven-day run by playing on the road at the then 3-10 Cleveland Browns in the standard Sunday 1 pm Eastern window. Kansas City returned home to host Houston before traveling to Pittsburgh.
That’s tough but a little more manageable than what the Steelers went through. It’s the way the Texans and Ravens were set up that should draw the ire of most fans. Three games in eleven days is brutal as-is, but when giving two of the four teams in the Christmas Day block a bye week before entering that portion of the calendar is a competitive disadvantage to say the least.
The Texans received a Week 14 bye before hosting the Miami Dolphins, traveling to the Chiefs, and then hosting the Ravens on Christmas Day. That’s a tough slate, but the bye week helps with rest and resetting due to an extra week of preparation.
The Ravens got the biggest gift of all among the four, with the Week 14 bye leading into their first game of the eleven days on the road at the 2-11 New York Giants. Ahead of the 2024 season, the Giants were coming off of a six-win campaign in which they were near the bottom of the NFL in both offensive and defensive ranks.
The Giants game enabled the Ravens to sit more starters as the game progressed into a 28-7 blowout by the fourth quarter. The smooth-sailing Ravens would then host the Steelers for what would end up being the de facto AFC North championship game before finishing off inside a dome on Christmas Day in Houston.
The Steelers were far less fortunate. The schedule makers did them no favors by shipping them off to Philadelphia, a place they haven’t won at since 1965, to kick off their eleven-day span. The matchup in the middle was the aforementioned AFC North title decider with the Ravens in Baltimore.
The schedule makers wrapped up the eleven days with Pittsburgh hosting the Chiefs on a Wednesday. That means the eleven-day, three-game span was bookended by both of this year’s Super Bowl contestants, the Eagles and Chiefs.
In hindsight, it looks terrible, but in foresight, it did too. Don’t forget that the NFL released the 2024 regular season schedule much later than usual. Speculation has it the Steelers were that reason, as they fought over the three-game block and the opposition they were up against: and rightfully so.
Heading into the year, everyone pointed fingers at the late division games and the eleven days as problematic. According to FanDuel odds to win the superbowl, the Steelers were positioned as underdogs, reflecting the challenges they faced in a highly competitive AFC North division. We knew then and we know now that facing the eventual two conference winners and a long-time rival for the division title – with two of those games on the road – would seem unsurmountable. And it was.
Rather than receiving a bye week like the Texans or Ravens, and a “gimme” opponent like the Giants or a similar bottom-feeder, the Steelers were fed to the Lions. Fatigue and injuries piled up, as the team coasted into Philly without Larry Ogunjobi, DeShon Elliott, and George Pickens. Those three would not heal up in time to play in Baltimore either, with starting CB Donte Jackson also ruled out.
It would prove too much to overcome as the next-to-last game against the two-time defending Super Bowl champions would place Pittsburgh out of contention for the division title and a potential home playoff berth. The further spiral would continue with two more division opponents – rematches with the Bengals and Ravens – down the path of the five-game losing streak.
So let Super Bowl LIX be a reminder that the NFL was out to sabotage the Steelers from the onset of their 2024 season. The stacked deck would’ve been difficult to overcome for almost any team, and the organization was well within their right to protest the shortcomings saddled to them by the NFL’s partnership with HBO and Netflix.
How Super Bowl LIX matchup confirms the Steelers schedule was sabotaged appeared first on Steel City Underground.