I looked it up just in case. Curiosity, really. On the off chance the Pittsburgh Steelers lost this game to the Arizona Cardinals, which felt remote even knowing how dangerous the Steelers like to live, I wanted to know the answer. So hours before the game, before Pittsburgh’s offense beat itself, before the defense wilted on third down, before the rains came, I pulled the stat.
When was the last time the Steelers lost this late in a season to a team that came into a game with as bad a winning percentage as Arizona?
The answer? It’s been a long time. It’s going to hurt you.
First, some parameters. The NFL had wrapped up its 12th week. And the Cardinals’ winning percentage, at 2-10, was .167. That was my search. Losses the Steelers had (regardless of their record) after Week 12 against teams with a winning percentage at or below .167. In essence, teams that were bad for an extended period of time to eliminate the noise of losing against, say an 0-2 team. That’s not the same as facing a 2-10 team.
I wanted to know the last time that in Week 13 or later, Pittsburgh had lost a game against someone with that kind of pitiful mark. Entering Sunday, the Steelers had played 16 such games. And overall, as you might expect, they’ve had success. Some close calls, especially against the Cleveland Browns, beating them by four in 2017 and in overtime to close out the 2016 campaign. But in others, they won big as they were supposed to. In 2011, they knocked around the St. Louis Rams 27-0. In 2010, they took it to the Carolina Panthers 27-3 and in 2001, they racked up 47 points in a blowout win over the Detroit Lions.
Of their 16 such instances entering the Cardinals game, the Steelers had only lost one of them. It was 1940. To the Philadelphia Eagles. A game where the Steelers didn’t have much more offense than they did 84 years later, falling to the Eagles 7-0 in Week 13.
To simplify this bit of stat salad. This is only the second time the Steelers have suffered a loss this late in a season to a team with this bad of an opposing record. 2023 and 1940. Just for proof, we’re nothing if not transparent, here are all the other such examples.
The Eagles entered that game 0-9. Pittsburgh, and this is a key difference compared to 2023, was just 2-6-2. Two bad teams trying to find out which one was just a little worse. That game was scoreless through the first three quarters until Philadelphia’s Dick Riffle broke the tie with a seven-yard run with three minutes to go. With the extra point true, that’s only the points the 5,000 fans at Shibe Park would see that day and Philadelphia pulled off the “upset” if you can call it that.
The next day, the Pittsburgh Press offered just a brief recap. Pro football wasn’t nearly as popular as the college game and the sliver of information was tucked away on the second page, squeezed out by Rose Bowl coverage. The subheading? “Oh, Well!” If only Sunday’s loss could be shaken off so easily.
Leaguewide since 2000, teams in the position that Pittsburgh was in win almost every time. Including this weekend, teams facing lousy-record opponents are 116-19, winning 85.9 percent of the time. Take it a step further and look at teams that have records above .500, as Pittsburgh did, against teams with a .167 winning percentage or worse this late in the year, and they came into the weekend 56-5, a .918 winning percentage. Pittsburgh becomes the sixth loss.
From that specific and narrow perspective, this is a loss Pittsburgh’s almost never had in history. This late in a season to this bad of a team, record-wise. Consider that unlike the 1940 squad, the 2023 Steelers had a winning record, and you could make an objective case this is the team’s worst loss ever.
Is that my actual opinion? Probably not. Not right now. It’s easy to be a prisoner of the moment. There are the countless upset losses. All the ugly ones to the Raiders, Terrelle Pryor, Bruce Gradkowski. An assortment of other backup quarterbacks this team has fallen to like the Ryans: Finley and Mallett. Going back a few decades, there was the 1989 season, the 51-0 blowout to the Cleveland Browns and a similar defeat to Cincinnati the following week. And the team’s 24-6 loss to the Houston Texans, which we’ve gone in-depth about before, is arguably still sitting in the top spot.
But never has a situation like this played out for Pittsburgh. A winning record to this degree going against a losing record to the Cardinals’ degree this late in a season resulting in a loss. So of course it happened Sunday.
Now facing the 2-10 New England Patriots on Thursday, the Steelers can’t afford to add to their history.
