There’s one chance left. Just one game left to play at Acrisure Stadium this year. Only one more opportunity to stave off embarrassment. If the Pittsburgh Steelers lose to the Cincinnati Bengals today, they will secure their first home losing record since 1999 when they went 2-6 under head coach Bill Cowher.
Entering this game at 4-4 after losing to the two-win Arizona Cardinals and New England Patriots, the Steelers find themselves up against the wall on many fronts. Their playoff lives hang in the balance. They are flirting with their first losing record in two decades. Now they can’t even defend their home turf.
Head coach Mike Tomlin recorded his first non-winning home record in 2022 when the team went 4-4. But with nine home games this season and no ties, this game will decide whether they finish over or under .500—barring an unlikely tie in this instance.
The last time the Steelers had even a .500 record at home or lost four games was in 2003, the year that they went 6-10 and drafted QB Ben Roethlisberger the following spring. Tomlin has gone at least 7-1 at home three times, most recently during the 2020 season, going back to his first year in 2007.
In fact, he only lost as many as three games at home five times during his first 15 seasons, meaning that two-thirds of the time, he had at least a .750 winning percentage at Heinz Field (barring ties, of course, but you can feel free to make those adjustments yourself if need be).
Their first loss at home came in the season opener and was perhaps the most embarrassing, even if it was against arguably their toughest opponent. The San Francisco 49ers embarrassed them from start to finish in a 30-7 blowout.
They won their next two against the Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens, the former thanks to defensive touchdowns and the latter to opponent drops, before losing, 20-10, to the Jacksonville Jaguars. QB Kenny Pickett exited that game before halftime, the recently benched Mitch Trubisky throwing two interceptions in the second half.
But the Steelers came back with two more wins for the home crowd in a row against the Tennessee Titans and the Green Bay Packers. In both cases, it took a final defensive stand to seal the deal. Both ILB Kwon Alexander and S Damontae Kazee provided exclamation points with game-sealing interceptions inside the red zone.
That got them to 4-2 at home and 6-3 overall. Things were looking pretty good. They were still 7-4 two weeks later after a short road trip against divisional foes. And then they ran into the 2-10 Cardinals and let them run away with the game in the second half.
The Patriots just five days later didn’t wait long. Led by backup QB Bailey Zappe after benching Mac Jones, New England put up three first-half touchdowns that proved to be enough to manage a Trubisky-led offense.
And that is why we are now on the doorstep of Pittsburgh’s first home losing record since 1999. With Mason Rudolph making his first start in years tasked to defend their soil.
