The Pittsburgh Steelers have had a strained relationship with bye weeks this past season, both in how they perform in them and in how they talk about them. One thing is clear, however, and that is that they have not played their best football in recent years when coming off of them.
Focusing only on the 2017 season, we saw how rough the Steelers looked against the Indianapolis Colts, particularly on the offensive side of the ball and in the first half. While they went on to rally and win, courtesy of a last-second field goal by Chris Boswell, it’s clear they are not as sharp as they should have been.