Sitting at 3-2 through the first five weeks of the season, the Pittsburgh Steelers find themselves in first place in the AFC North despite playing nowhere close to their best football, especially on offense.
The bye week comes at a great time though as the Steelers look to get some key pieces back from injury and get a chance to do some self-scouting before a tough road trip out west to take on the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium in Week Seven at 4:25 p.m. EST.
It’s certainly a tough road trip on paper, but the good news is the Steelers tend to win much more often than not coming out of the bye week in the Mike Tomlin era, even if they have struggled historically on the West Coast since 2007.
Since Tomlin was hired ahead of the 2007 season following Bill Cowher’s retirement, the Steelers are an impressive 12-4 following the bye, according to Stathead. They’ll look to make it 13-4 in Week Seven in Los Angeles.
Things didn’t start out all that great under Tomlin following the bye week. In 2007, the Steelers went to Denver to take on the Broncos following a Week Six bye and subsequently dropped the game, 31-28. After that Week Seven loss on the road to Denver in the 2007 season after the bye, Tomlin didn’t drop a game post-bye for the next six seasons.
From 2008-2013, Tomlin was a perfect 6-0 after the bye, beating the Cincinnati Bengals on the road in 2008, Denver on the road in 2009, Cleveland at home in 2010, Kansas City on the road in 2011, Philadelphia at home in 2011 and the New York Jets on the road in 2012.
After ripping off a win in six straight seasons after the bye, the Steelers then dropped three straight from 2014-16, losing to the New Orleans Saints at home in 2014, on the road to the Seattle Seahawks in 2015 and the Baltimore Ravens in 2016 on the road.
Since then though, the Steelers have won another six straight after the bye, with four of those wins after the bye coming at home.
The Week Seven road trip will mark just the third road game coming out of a bye week for the Steelers under Tomlin since 2017, which has included road trips to Indianapolis in 2017 and Cleveland in 2021.
Therefore, the trip to Los Angeles will mark just the second West Coast road trip for the Steelers coming out of the bye in the Tomlin era. It’ll be the first true West Coast road trip for the Steelers after the bye since the 2015 season when Pittsburgh traveled to Seattle and lost, 39-30.
Though the Steelers are consistently good coming out of the bye week under Tomlin, three of the four post-bye loses under Tomlin since 2017 have occurred on the road. Add in the fact that the Steelers have significant struggles heading out west under Tomlin and it will be quite the challenge for the Steelers to move to 4-2 in Week Seven against the Rams.
In the Tomlin era, the Steelers are just 3-7 in the Pacific Standard Time zone. That said, they are 2-1 in their last three trips to the West Coast having just defeated the Las Vegas Raiders in Week Three on Sunday Night Football and have a win over the Los Angeles Chargers in 2019. Pittsburgh traveled to SoFi Stadium in 2021 to take on the Chargers and dropped a wild game, 41-37.
Struggles on the West Coast in the Tomlin era include some painful losses to the Raiders when they were in Oakland in 2012, 2013 and 2018. The Steelers also have West Coast losses to San Francisco and Seattle during Tomlin’s tenure.
Historically, Pittsburgh has great success under Tomlin coming out of the bye with that sparkling 12-4 record, which includes a 6-3 mark on the road, but the struggles out West are a concern. One strength will clash against one weakness from a numbers perspective when the Steelers hit the road to take on the Rams. Something’s got to give.
Hopefully that give occurs in a positive direction of the Steelers.
