3 games in 10 days
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Man, the NFL screwed the Steelers this year.
First, they completely backloaded their schedule. The last nine games are/were WAS (playoffs), BAL (division rival, playoffs last year, those games are typically the most physical of the year, except for occasionally CIN), CLE (division rival, playoff team last year they treat beating Pittsburgh like their Super Bowl), CIN (division rival, maybe the best passing game in the league), CLE again, PHI (division leader), BAL again, KC (current greatest team ever), and CIN again.
That’s a murderer’s row. The AFC NORTH was the first team to have all teams finish with a winning record last year, and 3 of 4 were in the playoffs. The 4th was this year’s trendy pick for the SB. They are regarded as the most physical division in the league and just beat the crap out of each other. Having all 6 games in the last 9 weeks is absurd, and then they added in 2 other extremely physical teams, and the most improved team in the league.
To compound it, they really screwed the team by scheduling 3 of those games within 11 days. Between November 10th-21st, they played WAS, BAL then travelled just 4 days after the brawl against the Ravens to play in CLE in a frigging snowstorm. You could see the Steelers were beat up, tired, and sore… Well, their opponents had their own tough schedule, right? Nope.. The Ravens had 10 days off before the Steelers game, then another 8 days before their game against the Chargers. 2 games in 18 days.
Still, the tough part’s over, right? Wrong. It gets worse. In December, the NFL beats their record of having a team play 3 games in 11 days, by having the same team play 3 games in 10 days, or 4 games in 18 (the same amount of time the Ravens played 2 games). On December 15th, the Steelers play the Eagles, play the Ravens (again!) on the 21st, then 4 days after that fistfight, play the league’s top team Chiefs. That’s going to be ugly. Oh, and during December, the Ravens will be playing 3 games in 25 days because of their bye week…
Ridiculous.
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