The Steelers’ 2024 Schedule is Now Set…and It’s Rough
Welcome back, yinz. I took some time away for some much-needed mental relief, and now I’m back just in time to discuss the Steelers’ ahbsolutely BRUTAL schedule for 2024.
Photo by Brook Ward.
Full disclosure: I wrote, earlier this month, about the AFC North and how I saw the division playing out, based solely on the list of opponents that was provided to us earlier this year. I had the Steelers and Ravens both finishing the year 11-6 and battling for the division crown. I’m not wavering from that prediction, but the schedule makers did everything in their power to make it as complicated as possible. In fact, Gennaro Filice of NFL.com thinks we have the hardest schedule of the 2024 season.
The Steelers’ season kicks off in dramatic fashion, as our new offensive coordinator, Arthur Smith, returns to the city of Atlanta, where he was head coach just a few months ago, for a game against the Falcons. That game will take place on Sunday, September 8th, 2024 at 1 pm eastern. After that, they’ll travel to Denver for a game against the Broncos on the afternoon of September 15th; another dramatic game, as QB Russell Wilson returns to battle the Broncos team that essentially told him they didn’t want him anymore earlier this year. Then, the Steelers’ will host the Los Angeles Chargers in their home opener, when they’ll hope to spoil Jim Harbaugh’s return to the NFL. After that game, they’ll travel to Indianapolis to play the Colts on September 29th. This stretch of games is CRUCIAL, in my opinion, because of the gauntlet that they’ll face later on in the year. We really can’t afford to lose any of those games. That’ll be a tall task, because of something that I pointed out in my last post: we’re debuting a new offensive system, and a new quarterback. We can’t expect this offense to come out firing on all cylinders from the gate. Still, the defense will have to carry the weight during this span, which they’re capable of doing. If we come out of this four-game stretch 4-0, we’ll be in good shape.
The month of October features three prime-time games: a star-studded game against the Dallas Cowboys in Pittsburgh on Sunday Night Football on October 6th, and the Aaron-Rodgers-led Jets on Sunday Night Football on October 20th. Those two games will be extremely close games, in my opinion. I wrote earlier this year about Micah Parsons’ ridiculous comments about TJ Watt at the tail end of last season. I have that October 6th game circled on my calendar. I think TJ Watt is going to use that bulletin board material and put the team on his back and lead us to victory by himself that day. Can’t wait for that. We close out the month against the New York Giants on Monday Night Football, in Pittsburgh, on my birthday, October 28th. I’ll be in attendance and I have a 10-1 record at Steelers games, so have no fear. That’ll be a W.
We don’t see any division rivals until the middle of November, when we host the Ravens on the 17th.
Now, December is when things get….well…shitty for us, for lack of a better word. In a 10-day span between December 15th and Christmas Day, the Steelers will play @ Philadelphia against the Eagles, @ Baltimore against the Ravens, and in Pittsburgh against the defending Super Bowl Champion KC Chiefs on Christmas. Yeah….Merry fuckin’ Christmas to us. We will, then, close the year out in Pittsburgh against the Bengals in a game which the date and time will be determined later on.
There’s a very real chance that the Steelers lose three-straight games in the month of December. That would not be ideal for us, as we’re sure to be in the thick of things in the playoff race. With that being said, I think that game in Philadelphia on December 15th is going to be a must-win for us. I know they’re an NFC team, so it won’t help us in very many tie-breaker scenarios heading into the playoffs, but hear me out: that’ll be the only team during that gauntlet that we’ll have a full week to prepare for. We cannot go into Philadelphia and leave with a loss. That would potentially loom heavily over the locker room on a short week heading to Baltimore. Then, the dominoes fall once more, and that could extend all the way to the scariest game on the schedule on an even SHORTER week, Christmas Day against the Chiefs. It’ll be December football, so they’re all going to be must-win games. And, if and when we lose one or more of them, we’ll act like the sky is falling in Pittsburgh. It just is what it is. But, if we can start that 10-day span with a win in Philly, I think it’ll be a big-time win for us.
A lot of yinz are deeply upset about how the schedule makers set us up. I see a lot of folks saying that they hate the Steelers and that they’re doing it on purpose. Hell, who knows. I don’t know shit about how they go about deciding these things, outside the fact that they want ratings. Here’s the thing, though, we’re confident in this team heading into the season, right? We think they’re one of the best teams in the best division in football, right? We think this is a playoff team, right? I can’t be the only one that thinks those things. When we made the playoffs after the 2023 season, we were a fraudulent playoff team. We were on our third string QB by the time the playoffs started - regardless of who you think was the best QB on the team, I just stated a FACT. If we make the playoffs this year, with how our schedule is laid out, it will be because we earned it. I love the idea of us knocking off three MONSTERS in the month of December and letting the rest of the league know: we’re about SUPER BOWLS in Pittsburgh. To be the best, you gotta beat the best, and we’ll have our chances to do just that under the most difficult of circumstances. So, I’m not mad. Tomlin will have the boys ready. I’m sticking to my prediction, too. We’ll be 11-6 and in the conversation for the division crown.
Let’s start planning some trips. Here. We. Go.
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