A lot of people have wailed and rent their garments over the Pittsburgh Steelers’ schedule and its immense difficulty. On the whole, I find myself largely indifferent—after all, we knew every single team they would play since January. The one quirk that intrigues me, however, is the timing of the Baltimore Ravens games.
More specifically, what happens after they play the Ravens is interesting. Following each game against Baltimore, the Steelers play on a short week. So they will play one of their most physical games on their schedule and then turn around and play again. I find that more daunting than the relative proximity of tough opponents.
Let’s look at the schedule, shall we? The Steelers play the Ravens for the first time in Week 11 on Sunday, November 17. After that, they play a Thursday Night game against the Cleveland Browns on the 21st. Their second game against the Ravens comes in Week 16 on Saturday, December 21. After that, they host the Kansas City Chiefs on Christmas Wednesday. That’s December 25 for those who don’t know when Christmas is.
On each occasion, the Steelers get three days of rest following a Ravens game. And then they proceed to play tough opponents, including the defending Super Bowl champions. On both occasions, they are home and away or vice versa for the Ravens game and the game that follows. In other words, they don’t get to just stay home in Pittsburgh for either short-week scenario.
This is by far the area of the schedule that personally troubles me most. I don’t care about playing six divisional games in the final eight weeks this year, as I’ve previously explained. It’s not their fault the AFC North is suddenly the deepest division in the NFL. And their intradivisional track record is strong in recent years, anyway.
But to visit the Browns four days after playing the Ravens, or to play the Chiefs anywhere after Baltimore, that’s a rough assignment, for the Steelers or anybody else. Almost every team in the league has to play a short week at some point. I think the Los Angeles Chargers are somehow excepted this year, a perk of sucking, perhaps, but on the whole, it’s something everybody has to do.
The NFL is going to put the Steelers on a Thursday Night game every year. We know and accept this. And I don’t think anybody is surprised they chose the Steelers to play on Christmas, which happens to be a Wednesday.
The NFL could have found other opponents for the Steelers to play other than the Ravens in advance, though. Or they could have, on at least one occasion, given them a bye week preceding one of the short weeks.
I should note that the Steelers are not unique in having multiple short weeks, though. I haven’t examined every schedule, but I know the San Francisco 49ers play on two Thursdays without preceding bye weeks. The New York Jets are another team in the same boat as the 49ers. Same goes for the Los Angeles Rams, Seattle Seahawks, Cleveland Browns, Cincinnati Bengals, and Chiefs, who have a Friday game. But they don’t have to play the Ravens twice before their short weeks.
