It’s Monday. The Pittsburgh Steelers won yesterday. That can only mean one thing: Victory Monday.
Of course, every Monday after a Sunday win is a Victory Monday. But it also means something specific when it comes to the NFL: a day off that you might not otherwise get, as a reward. And the Steelers earned themselves their first Victory Monday of the season following their fourth win in six games.
Even though they trailed into the fourth quarter, one can make the argument that this was the Steelers’ most complete victory so far of the season. While they got defensive splash in OLB T.J. Watt’s key interception, the offense didn’t rely upon the defense nearly as much, putting up 24 points and even, at times, actually looking good. The specialists even did their thing.
But back to the point. The Steelers’ media department released the schedule for the week. Monday is listed as “No player availability: day off”. That means we won’t be hearing from players today, a first for the season, at least in spirit.
The team also technically had a Victory Monday following the win over the Las Vegas Raiders, but that comes with just a couple caveats. For one thing, that was a Sunday Night Football game, not an afternoon game. For another, they had airplane troubling trying to even get back to Pittsburgh. Whether they had a day off scheduled or not, it was going to happen.
Of course, the Steelers’ first win of the season game on Monday Night Football, making it impossible to have a Victory Monday (they did have their standard Tuesday off). And their most recent win before yesterday was against the Baltimore Ravens, which led into their bye week.
The fact that they are getting a Monday off coming off that bye week, I think, is also significant. They just had a break. They came out of this game pretty healthy. There would be no major reason from a physical perspective to get the day off, so I see it as more of a reward.
One thing to note is that they do have a Thursday Night Football game coming up after they play the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday afternoon, so they will have two games to play in a five-game span. They also have to travel back from the West Coast. They didn’t have a situation in 2022 in which this scenario would have come up to compare. Following a loss in 2021 leading up to their Thursday night game the following week, they did get that Monday off practice, but the players were still in the building with media availability (still in the Zoom era at the time).
Regardless of the reason, the Steelers had better enjoy their Victory Monday, especially with a pair of games on the horizon. They won’t have another break this season, although they will get their “mini-bye” after the Thursday game.
