Getty Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin watches from the sidelines
If the Pittsburgh Steelers decided to make a push to shorten the week to six days by eliminating Thursdays from every calendar known to humankind, no one would blame them.
For whatever reason, the historically successful franchise has always had difficulty emerging on the right side of the scoring margin during Thursday Night Football contests, and losing to the New England Patriots in Week 14 of the 2023 NFL season pushed them even further in the wrong direction.
The Steelers’ Success by Day of the Week is Jarring
The Steelers’ franchise history dates back to a 3-6-2 season as the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1933, and it’s been filled with enviable levels of success ever since Chuck Noll got his sea legs under him as head coach and began a stretch of constant winning in the 1970s. With six championships, eight Super Bowl appearances, 36 playoff victories and a list of Hall of Famers that would need to be printed in awfully small font to fit on a Terrible Towel, they’ve long been one of the league’s model franchises.
Except on Thursdays.
On Mondays, the Steelers have played their way to a 56-31-1 lifetime record, good for a .642 winning percentage, per Stathead. On Sundays, they’re at 563-496-21 (.531). The rare Saturday contests have yielded a 27-21 record (.563). Due to minuscule sample sizes, Tuesday (0-1), Wednesday (5-6) and Friday (3-2) are irrelevant.
But Thursdays. Oh, Thursdays.
Even after securing a 20-16 victory over the Tennessee Titans back in Week 9, the Steelers have played their way to an embarrassing 14-20 record (.412). Among the 32 current franchises, only six have been less successful:
- Houston Texans: 6-9 (.400)
- Washington Commanders: 10-16 (.385)
- New York Jets: 8-16 (.333)
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers 5-10 (.333)
- Carolina Panthers: 5-10 (.333)
- Arizona Cardinals: 11-25-2 (.316)
Historically speaking, that’s not exactly the type of company the Steelers want to keep.
Recent Lack of Success on Thursdays is Even Worse
Given Mike Tomlin’s stoicism on the sidelines and the level of preparation he’s always able to coax out of his players, Pittsburgh struggling even more in recent short-week scenarios is increasingly unexpected.
Over the last decade (2014-23), the Steelers have played 11 games on Thursday nights and emerged victoriously from just four of them:
- A 26-6 loss to the Baltimore Ravens on September 11, 2014
- A 28-21 loss to the New England Patriots on September 10, 2015
- A 23-20 overtime loss to the Baltimore Ravens on October 1, 2015
- A 28-7 victory over the Indianapolis Colts on November 24, 2016
- A 40-17 victory over the Tennessee Titans on November 16, 2017
- A 52-21 victory over the Carolina Panthers on November 8, 2018
- A 21-7 loss to the Cleveland Browns on November 14, 2019
- A 36-28 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on December 9, 2021
- A 29-17 loss to the Cleveland Browns on September 22, 2022
- A 20-16 victory over the Tennessee Titans on November 2, 2023
That’s a .364 winning percentage during a stretch in which the Steelers have gone 99-58-2 (.629) overall.
Throughout all of franchise history, Pittsburgh has seen its winning percentage fall from .536 overall to .412 on Thursdays—a dip of 12.4 percentage points. That drop-off has been exacerbated in the last decade, rising all the way to a 26.5-percentage point decline.
Mike Tomlin has Addressed Thursday Night Games Before
“I do not have an opinion nor do I care,” Tomlin explained on November 13, 2019, per Pro Football Talk. “I am not involved in the making of the schedule. We will be there.”
Then his 5-4 Steelers dropped a game to the 3-6 Cleveland Browns. And then they lost each of their next two Thursday Night Football outings before getting off the schneid with the defeat of the Titans in November 2023.
Maybe he’ll eventually share the mentality of Jon Gruden, for whom he worked during their mutual time with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“I hate this,” Gruden shared at the same time. “I don’t believe in this Thursday football. I’m not going to be on a soapbox any more than that. It hurts us. It hurts both teams. The preparation. … I take a lot of pride in getting our guys ready to play. We need a little time to do that, but a lot of people disagree with me.”
Pittsburgh fans probably concur with Gruden’s assessment.