R-e-l-a-x, Steelers fans: the loss in Cleveland was predictable

Years ago, a then-Green Bay Packer Aaron Rodgers, following a 1-2 start to a football season, famously told the team's fans to "r-e-l-a-x." Read more: R-e-l-a-x, Steelers fans: the loss in Cleveland was predictable

Twelve days ago, after the Steelers moved to 2-and-2 after a "surprise" loss to Cleveland on Roger Goodell's cherished Thursday Night Football, my reaction mirrored Rodgers' from yesteryear.

Yet, if paying attention to Steelers fans, pundits, and even some team members themselves after that October 1 defeat, yinz might have thought that the sky was falling. To rationalize why the Steelers had lost, commentators surmised that new coach (and Yinzer) Mike McCarthy surely had lost the team, that the players on defense didn't respect coordinator Patrick Graham, that certain players appeared to be making "business decisions" when deciding how much effort to put into their performance, and that Steelers President Art Rooney and General Manager Omar Khan have no clue what they're doing.

OK, OK -- maybe that last contention is true. Irrespective of that, though, let's look at some relevant facts from recent years:

The numbers on Thursday nights

The Browns are 6-1 at home versus the Steelers since 2019.

Somehow, the Cleveland Browns haven't lost a Thursday night game since 2016. Furthermore, since 2009, the Browns are 10-0 at home on Thursday nights -- helping to make the team one of the most dominant mid-week performers in the NFL.

Related: Aaron Rodgers finding his rhythm behind Steelers' new-look o-line

Meanwhile, the Steelers have the league's worst win percentage in Thursday night road games, at just 15%. Since the end of the '70s dynasty, the Steelers are 0-10 on the road in such contests against division rivals. Since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970, the Steelers are 0-8 in Thursday night road matches against franchises that now comprise the league's AFC North.

In general, AFC North teams have struggled to win in-division road games on Thursday Night Football. Road teams' win percentage in these games is a paltry 23%.

So, given the foregoing facts, how in the world would anybody have expected the Steelers to win a Thursday night game in Cleveland? How on earth were they favored? A loss was almost fait accompli!

Moreover, how could the Steelers be in crisis mode when, just days before the eminently predictable loss in Cleveland, they had posted a most-impressive win against AFC favorite Cincinnati (which was the betting favorite in that game)?

Cleveland under McCarthy and under Tomlin

Plus, for anyone wanting to condemn the new coaching staff, compare the most recent result in Cleveland, under McCarthy, to the penultimate result last December, under former coach Mike Tomlin. On only three days' rest, McCarthy's offense put up 24 points and was only a rare Chris Boswell FG miss away from 27 (and an OT loss at worst). QB Rodgers threw for almost 300 yards and three touchdowns, and star running back Jaylen Warren rushed for almost 100 yards on 5.5 yards per carry.

On the other hand: Last year, following a full week of preparation, the Steelers, playing to try to clinch an AFC North title, could muster only six points -- with Rodgers throwing for just 168 yards and no scores, and Warren netting only 64 yards on the ground. Yes, this year's defense gave up 27 points, as opposed to 13 last year, but this go-around, the Steelers were playing with a depleted, banged-up secondary, and without elite cornerback Joey Porter Jr., whom Graham had expected to have at his disposal -- if not for a Khan-initiated trade to Dallas at the last minute before the game. (The Cowboys got JPJ, while the Steelers received a pet rock and, straight from the $5 bin at Walmart, a DVD copy of the seminal classic Pootie Tang. Thanks, Omar.)

The win over the Colts

While seemingly everyone else was preparing to endure another loss for the Steelers this past Sunday, to the Colts in the friendly confines of Acrisure Stadium, I was confident that the Browns loss was a foreseeable aberration and that the home team would have a strong, bounce-back game.

What'd'yinz know: I was right.

McCarthy's high-powered offense once again shined, in a decisive 34-22 victory. Rodgers threw for three touchdowns for a third-straight game, tying a team record (originally set by Terry Bradshaw, in 1982) for throwing three scores that many games in a row. Tight end Pat Freiermuth, who might as well have been in the Witness Protection Program under Tomlin, caught two of Rodgers' three TD strikes, while Jaylen Warren caught the other, running 80 yards to the end zone after corralling a checkdown pass from his storied QB. (Surely the team's MVP through five games, Warren added 101 yards of rushing for a total of 188 yards from scrimmage altogether; currently, he is on pace to challenge the team's single-season Yards From Scrimmage record.)

The league's highest-paid defense yet again was less impressive than the offense, but Graham's "Bend but Don't Break" unit did just that -- allowing only one Indianapolis TD and limiting feared rusher Jonathan Taylor to three yards a carry, for 45 total. (We should see marked improvement from the Steelers' secondary in particular with the return of starting safety DeShon Elliott from Injured Reserve; the coaching staff expects Elliott back on the field either this Sunday or the week thereafter.)

Where the Steelers stand

The bottom line? The Steelers are just fine. On their way to yet another winning season (which would be their 23rd straight non-losing season, extending what is already an NFL record). Pittsburgh may not be among the very elite teams of the NFL (e.g., the Chiefs or the 49ers), but the team can more than hold its own against stiff competition -- so long as kickoff isn't on the road on a Thursday night.

The real villain

Which does lead me to a final point: The real villain, at whom Steelers fans, commentators, and players really should be directing their vitriol, is Roger Goodell. (Surprise, surprise.) Four out of the last five years, he has scheduled the Steelers to play in-division road games on Thursday night. No team should ever have to play road Thursday night games in even back-to-back seasons. If I were Art Rooney, I'd be making a call to Goodell this offseason and demanding that the Steelers play their allotted Thursday night games at home for the next two years, to compensate for unfair scheduling over the last several. . . .

. . . and if Goodell doesn't accommodate, again scheduling the Steelers to play an in-division road game, I'd wait until an hour before kickoff -- and forfeit, saying that my team might as well lose as a healthy scratch if the league is going to insist on unfair scheduling. Then I'd call Goodell again, right away, and tell that world-class jagoff to explain the lack of a game to Amazon and his precious sponsors.

Again: If I were Art Rooney . . .