There’s never a bad time for a bye week. Mike Tomlin always uses that adage. For the 3-1 Pittsburgh Steelers, it’s nice to step back and admire the view.
Though far from perfect or oftentimes, even good, the Steelers are 3-1 through September. Offer that record up in June and any reasonable fan would’ve jumped at the chance. Even after allowing a near-historic Minnesota Vikings comeback, Pittsburgh played its best game of the season in Dublin. The closest representation to the type of game the Steelers aim to play. The running game imposed its will. Aaron Rodgers was smart and moved the offense. Playmakers made plays. The defense brought pressure and created havoc. The run defense tightened up.
Pittsburgh’s 3-1 in spite of not playing its best football. Health hasn’t helped. The defense has missed plenty of pieces this season and now has the bye to get fully healthy. Cornerback Joey Porter Jr. and EDGE Alex Highsmith have good odds to return. The battered secondary that nearly ran out of cornerbacks today gets a week to heal. Jaylen Warren, feeling the impact of running hard the first three games, gets to rest and should be back in Week 6. Having to play Weeks 6-18 non-stop is a grind but a Week 5 breather is a welcome sight.
Consider this. Pittsburgh’s played just one home game this season. And that was its only loss of the year. Winning in the NFL is hard. It’s doubly so on the road. Even with Croke Park feeling much more like Acrisure, packing up an entire organization for its first international game in over a decade? That’s not easy. Pittsburgh flies back on top.
It’s not just about Pittsburgh. If you think the Steelers have problems, check out the rest of the division. The Cincinnati Bengals may not have QB Joe Burrow for the rest of the season, and the defense is, again, bottom third.
The Baltimore Ravens might not have enough healthy players to field a roster. The team’s been hurt all year and suffered major blows this week, losing DT Nnamdi Madubuike for at least the next month and dropping star names left and right Sunday in a lopsided loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. That includes QB Lamar Jackson, who sat out the fourth quarter with a hamstring injury.
Per John Harbaugh, the injuries aren’t critical but they’re certainly notable. And only mounting.
With the loss, the Ravens fall to 1-3. At a critical junction point last season, sitting at 1-2 and facing Buffalo, Baltimore blew the Bills out and jump-started its season. There was no repeat showing in Arrowhead Sunday.
The Browns? They’re still the Browns. Never pushovers, mind you, and Cleveland’s split the season series with Pittsburgh three years running. But threats to win the division? Not happening.
Cincinnati heads to Denver for Monday Night Football. Heavy underdogs, losing that game would drop the Bengals to 2-2. The Ravens and Browns are 1-3. The Steelers are 3-1.
You couldn’t draw it up any better.
The work isn’t over. This story was similar a year ago. the Steelers began the year 3-1 and led the AFC North for most of the season. Until they didn’t. Baltimore stormed back, took the division, and eliminated the Steelers in the Wild Card Round. There’s a hard schedule to end the season. Divisional play has yet to begin. All of those challenges are understood.
There’s no victory lap. But there’s pole position. Pittsburgh’s sitting in first place 25 percent into the race that is the NFL’s regular season. Their engines are just warming up. The rest of the division is stalling.
