The Pittsburgh Steelers are 6-2 heading into their bye week. It’s a great mark overall, and what many viewed as a best-case scenario for the Steelers. While they hold a one-game lead in the AFC North, they still have all their divisional games left. And they also have three tough non-divisional games left to go, so the work is just beginning, former Steelers safety Ryan Clark says. It’s time to learn about this team.
“None of us know yet, but we’re about to find out” who the Steelers are, Clark told Scott Van Pelt on ESPN following their 26-18 win over the New York Giants Monday night. “We’re about to find out when you play a very good Washington Commanders team and then you get into your AFC North schedule.
“This team is much better off today than I thought they would be at the beginning of the season. The run game has picked up. You’re now explosive in the pass game, and your defense turns the ball over. But we’re gonna find out a lot about this team when it comes out of the bye, and I think Mike Tomlin will preach that”.
This storyline is far from a new one, of course. It has been the story to shape the Steelers’ season since the NFL released the 2024 schedule, decidedly weighted to the back half. While the AFC North is not looking as tough as it could have early on, the Steelers still will face stiff competition.
In addition to playing the Browns, Ravens, and Bengals twice, the Steelers also play the Commanders, Eagles, and Chiefs. Washington in particular is looking much better than anybody imagined with rookie QB Jayden Daniels. While the Chiefs don’t always look great on the screen, they are undefeated. And the Eagles, well, they seem to be succeeding somewhat quietly for a 5-2 team.
Philadelphia actually did the Steelers a favor by laying the smack down on a burgeoning Bengals team Sunday. After winning three of their last four and looking like they were “back”, Cincinnati is now sitting at 3-5, a full three games behind the division-leading Steelers.
And the Browns are even further behind at 2-6, though as Ryan Clark warned, they could be more threatening now. With QB Deshaun Watson on IR, Jameis Winston under center gives them more dynamic play—positively and negatively. They just beat the Ravens, though, which also helps the Steelers considerably.
So we know what the second half of the schedule looks like, and it will be a problem, for certain. But what have the Steelers done over the past eight weeks, to contextualize their 6-2 record? Well, to start, after beating the 2-6 Giants, they still have a .426 strength of victory. That does rank 13th in the NFL, so slightly above average.
The Steelers’ strength of schedule over the first eight weeks is also .435, though, and that ranks in the bottom 10 in the NFL. They have just beaten two teams that are now 2-6 in back-to-back weeks in the Jets and Giants. They lost to four-loss teams in the Colts and Cowboys. The Broncos at 5-3 are a better team than when they played Pittsburgh. The same is true of the 5-3 Falcons.
While you can say the Steelers aren’t going to catch such breaks in the second half, you can never predict the exact nature of games. How many times did the Steelers end up facing backup quarterbacks in recent years, for example? You can look at records, but you have to look at each game, as they’re about to be played, to truly discern the degree of difficulty. On paper, however, Ryan Clark is right. It is over these final nine games that we will learn who the 2024 Pittsburgh Steelers truly are.
