The good news is the games don’t count. But the Pittsburgh Steelers will have to wait a little while longer to secure their first win of the 2024 season. With Saturday’s 24-17 loss to the Detroit Lions, the Steelers finish the summer 0-3 in exhibition action. It’s their first winless preseason since 2013 when the league still had a four-game model.
Pittsburgh lost its 2024 opener 20-12 to the Houston Texans. The Steelers’ offense continued to struggle the following week, putting up just three points in an ugly 9-3 loss to the Buffalo Bills, a listless game even by August’s low standards. It was the lowest-scoring combined game Pittsburgh had played in since a 10-0 loss to the Carolina Panthers in 2014.
And the Steelers fell in their first and only road game of the summer to the Lions. Despite rolling to a 14-0 start, playing many of their starters against Detroit’s backups, the Lions came back in the second half. Detroit scored 10 points in the fourth quarter to capture a 24-17 lead.
The Steelers’ last winless preseason came more than a decade ago. That year, they suffered losses to the New York Giants, Washington Redskins, Kansas City Chiefs, and their annual finale versus the Carolina Panthers.
If you’re wondering, Pittsburgh finished 2013 8-8. That began with an abysmal 0-4 start capped by a loss in London to the Minnesota Vikings. The Steelers won six of their final eight games, but their late rally wasn’t enough to dig out of the hole they created, finishing the year at .500. Still, that was enough to vault them into second place in the AFC North. Hopefully the Steelers have better results in 2024, a world that now has three preseason games and 17 regular-season contests.
Of course, Pittsburgh also finished the 2023 preseason undefeated with an offense that looked unstoppable, two things that clearly didn’t continue once the regular season began. So put little stock into this stat, even if it’s a warmup to our weekly “stats of the weird,” and it would’ve been nice to see Pittsburgh come off the field victorious once this summer.
Pittsburgh’s next game will be in Atlanta versus the Falcons on Sept. 8.
