The Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2024 schedule has officially been released, giving us something to examine, discuss, and debate during this otherwise quiet portion of the offseason.
Though I’m not one to overanalyze the win-loss aspect of it – it has its value but so much will change – I’ll take any chance I can get to talk about some weird stats. So today’s edition is Stats Of The Weird: 2024 Schedule Edition.
– The Steelers don’t play an AFC North game until Week 11 when they face the Baltimore Ravens. It’s the latest the franchise has ever played a divisional opponent. The previous record was 1991 season when the Steelers had to wait until Week 9 to face an AFC Central opponent, the Cleveland Browns.
– For only the second time since 2012, the Steelers are spending three of their first four games on the road. The other instance over that span was 2017. Pittsburgh went 2-1 on the road, beating Cleveland in the opener and Baltimore in Week 4, but lost to Chicago in Week 3. They also beat Minnesota at home Week 2, getting them off to a 3-1 start. Hopefully that story repeats itself.
– This will be the third Christmas Day game Pittsburgh has played, joining the Houston Texans in 2017 and Baltimore Ravens in 2016 (which fell on a Sunday). The Steelers won both, giving them hope when they host the Kansas City Chiefs.
– The Week 5 matchup against the Dallas Cowboys will be the earliest they and the Steelers have squared off since 1997 when they opened the season versus each other. Dallas rolled Pittsburgh, 37-7, QB Troy Aikman throwing four touchdowns, two of which landed in Michael Irvin’s arms. Pittsburgh finished with just 174 yards of total offense.
– The NFL doesn’t give the Steelers late bye weeks. Despite teams being off as late as Week 14, Pittsburgh hasn’t had a bye week later than Week 9 since 2016. In 2015, its bye was Week 11.
– Excluding COVID games, this will be the Steelers’ first planned Wednesday game since 1936 when they beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 17-0. As I’m sure you already know, Warren Heller and Ed Skoronski scored touchdowns that day.
The Steelers are 5-6 all-time on Wednesday games (including the 2020 COVID one versus Baltimore). In fact, the team’s first game as a franchise came on a Wednesday, losing 23-2 to the New York Giants in 1933. Back then, Pennsylvania hadn’t officially repealed its “Blue Laws” that banned football games (and many other activities, it’s why you can’t buy a car on a Sunday in the state) from taking place on Sunday. That was repealed during the November elections that year but meant Pittsburgh’s first four home games were Wednesday shows. They would only play one Sunday game that year.
– From Weeks 12-16, the team will play four of its five games on the road. That looks ugly and hasn’t happened to the Steelers since 2020. But good news. That year, they won all four as part of their 11-0 start. The season…got worse from there.
– Pittsburgh will end their season against the Cincinnati Bengals. While every team plays the final week against a divisional opponent, it’s the first time the Steelers will wrap up their year against the Bengals since 2018. For the past five years, it’s been the Browns or Ravens. Pittsburgh won that ’18 game, 16-13.
– As things stand, the Steelers are only tabbed to play eight games at 1 PM/EST. The finale against the Bengals is still to be determined.
– Finally, one stat from the outside. Warren Sharp tweeted this one about Pittsburgh’s Week 2 matchup against the Denver Broncos. Over the last 35 years, the Broncos are 34-7 at home in the first two weeks of the season. However, he notes four of those losses have come in their last five games dating back to 2019.
So maybe it was just a product of the Broncos generally being a decent team in the 1990s and 2000s before falling off in recent years.
