Steelers 4 Downs: run of .500-or-better records isn’t the only streak on the line Sunday

1. Plenty of streaks

The Pittsburgh Steelers seemingly have become as well known for their run of finishing with a non-losing record (since 2004) as they have for their six Super Bowl championships, which is tied for the NFL record. The .500-or-better streak run of 18 consecutive seasons — dating to Ben Roethlisberger’s rookie campaign of 2004 — is on the line when the Steelers (8-8) host the Cleveland Browns (7-9) in the regular-season finale Sunday.

But that’s not the only long-running superlative at stake for the Steelers, whose consistency in recent decades is unmatched, arguably, in major American professional sports.

In addition to 18 straight non-losing seasons, the Steelers have some other runs that could be broken with a loss to Cleveland:

• At 3-4, the Steelers are in danger of their first losing season in home games at Acrisure Stadium/Heinz Field. It would be their first losing home season overall since 1999 and only their second sub-.500 mark at home since 1969.

• At 2-3 in the AFC North, the Steelers are in danger of a losing season in division games for the first time since 2009 and just second time since 1999. (Along those lines, the Steelers are 4-7 in AFC games this season; they haven’t been under .500 in conference play in a decade and haven’t been as bad as 4-8 vs. AFC teams in a season since 1988).

• A loss to the Browns would be the Steelers’ second this season. They haven’t been swept by their Turnpike rivals since 1988. The Steelers are 46-13-1 in the regular season against Cleveland since October 1989.

• A Cleveland victory would mean it’d finish with an equal or better record than the Steelers for the first time since 1989, when the Browns won the AFC Central at 9-6-1 and the Steelers went 9-7.

• A defeat Sunday also would leave the Steelers (8-8), officially, as the fourth-place team in the division. The Steelers haven’t finished in last place since 1988 — by far the longest run in the NFL. The New England Patriots have the second-longest run (22 consecutive seasons of non-last place finishes compared to the Steelers’ 34 straight such seasons).

"Definitely want to continue that streak. We all just have a certain level of respect for Coach Tomlin. I think it’s a pretty neat run that’s going on, so you don’t want to be the group that ends it for him.”https://t.co/zX025ucZFl

— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) December 14, 2022

2. Rename it the AFC Parity

The Steelers are 2½-point favorites Sunday, and the Cincinnati Bengals are a 9½-point pick over the visiting Baltimore Ravens in a game that will be played at the same time. If the Steelers and Bengals both win, that would mean the entire AFC North would finish with 3-3 division records.

That hasn’t happened in any NFL division since the 2012 NFC South. But what makes the 2022 AFC North unique is that if Cincinnati and the Steelers take care of business at home Sunday, each of the four teams would have split with each of their division rivals.

Since the current divisional alignment/format was created in 2002, none of the eight divisions in any of the prior 160 opportunities has ever seen all four of its teams split the season series with each other.

Blame Acrisure? #Steelers are 2-4 at home, & unless they beat the Las Vegas Raiders on Dec. 23 and the Cleveland Browns in the regular-season finale, they’ll have just their second home losing season since Chuck Noll’s first season in 1969. https://t.co/2seQNl8dCq@C_AdamskiTrib

— Tribune-ReviewSports (@TribSports) December 12, 2022

3. Stacking to stop the run

The Steelers used six defensive lineman during last week’s win at the run-heavy Baltimore Ravens, and they deployed three of them at once for more than half of their 52 defensive snaps.

Unsurprisingly, NFL Next Gen Stats reports that Baltimore running back J.K. Dobbins faced a stacked box (eight or more defenders close to the line of scrimmage) on 76.5% of his 17 carries against the Steelers. No other running back faced a stacked box on more than 61.5% of his carries last week, and throughout the full season, none has faced eight or more in the box on more than 40% of his carries.

Seven days after allowing 128 yards in the second half of a win at the Atlanta Falcons, the #Steelers allowed a season-high 215 rushing yards in a 16-14 loss to the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday. https://t.co/xe7nezJhLk

— Tribune-ReviewSports (@TribSports) December 12, 2022

4. Head count

Only one team (the Jacksonville Jaguars with 61) has used fewer players than the Steelers this season. The Steelers have deployed 63 players, tied with Cincinnati, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Philadelphia Eagles for second-fewest through 17 weeks.

The Steelers have used 26 players on offense, 32 on defense and 55 on special teams (obviously, some of the two former play in the latter). Only three teams have used fewer players on offense this season. In all, with those 26 players, the Steelers have deployed 201 personnel groupings on offense. That might sound like a lot, but it’s the fourth-fewest in the league. Consider that the median number of offensive lineups used by a team this season is 327, and the New Orleans Saints have used an NFL-high 522 offensive groups through 16 games.

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