The Pittsburgh Steelers lost to the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday at Acrisure Stadium and that 30-7 loss now serves as the biggest loss at home ever for the team under head coach Mike Tomlin. On the heels of that big Sunday loss, Steelers Communications Manager Michael Bertsch passed along an interesting stat for the franchise when it comes the ability to bounce back from big losses under Tomlin.
According to Bertsch, the Steelers own a 10-2 record in games following losses of 20 points or more since 2007, when Tomlin took the reigns as team’s head coach. That .833 winning percentage is the highest in the NFL in the span, according to his tweet.
Obviously, I thought it would be interesting to double check that stat and specifically, to see which two games the Steelers failed to bounce back with wins in. Below is the list of 12 games in which a Tomlin-coached team lost by 20 points or more. Interestingly enough, only one of those 12 previous blowout losses happened at home, and it was 2017 against the Jacksonville Jaguars. They followed that home loss to the Jaguars up with as road win against Kansas City Chiefs, 19-13.
In 2007, Tomlin’s first year as the Steelers head coach, his team was blown out on the road by the New England Patriots. The following week, the team failed to rebound as the Steelers lost at home to Jaguars, 29-22.
The other failed bounce back after a blowout loss under Tomlin came in 2019. The Steelers lost their Week One road game to the Patriots 33-3 and then followed that up with a 28-26 home loss to the Seattle Seahawks. That was the loss in which QB Ben Roethlisberger suffered his season-ending elbow injury.
Will the Steelers be able to rebound this time around on Monday night against the Cleveland Browns? It certainly seems like they need to even though it’s only Week Two. Quite honestly, the fact that they play on Monday Night Football at home against the Browns bodes well for them, at least when it comes to trends.
The Steelers are 20-0 in their last 20 home games that were played on Monday Night Football. Yes, I know there was a Monday home loss in 2020 to the Washington Football Team, but that wasn’t a Monday Night Football game. That game also got underway at 5:00 p.m. on that Monday as it was moved for COVID-related reasons. The last time the Steelers lost on Monday Night Football at home was in 1991 when they dropped a contest to the New York Giants.
As of the penning of this post, the Steelers are two-point home underdogs to the Browns on Monday night. The last time the Steelers were home underdogs against the Browns was back in Week 13 of the 2019 season. That one-point spread was covered, however, as the Steelers beat the Browns 20-13 with Devlin Hodges at quarterback.
In closing, here’s to the 2023 Steelers being able to show that bounce back ability another time on Monday night against the Browns. If they can’t pull out a win, they will be 0-2 on the season, something that’s happened just twice under Tomlin in 2013 and 2019. Those two times the respective seasons ended with the Steelers failing to make the playoffs with 8-8 records.
