Mike Tomlin has been wont to refer to playing AFC North games as being “in the kitchen.”
Fitting, then, that over the Thanksgiving season the Pittsburgh Steelers are spending the better part of a month feasting in the intra-divisional kitchen.
For the first time in the AFC North era, the Steelers are playing four consecutive division games. And Sunday’s game at the Cincinnati Bengals caps a “running the cycle” of each-of-the-three-division-opponents-in-three-weeks for just the second time since the AFC North was established in 2002.
“I hadn’t thought about it that way,” Tomlin said. “I know we play six (division games) every year, and that’s kind of my mindset. When they occur, I’m less concerned about because we don’t have control over that.”
When the schedule was released in May, the storyline that jumped off the page for the Steelers was that they were not facing an AFC North opponent until Week 11. That equates to all six divisional games over the Steelers’ final eight games of the season.
But the hidden twist in the larger overall quirk is that the Steelers are playing four consecutive intra-divisional games for the first time since they played five consecutive in 2001. Back them, it was called the AFC Central. And unlike today’s four-team divisional alignment, back then the Steelers played in a six-team division — and with 10 divisional opponents among a 16-game schedule, a run like this was far more likely. That the Steelers are playing four AFC North teams in a row despite playing six overall in a 17-game schedule makes it all the more of a novelty.
“I love (division games) — to be quite honest with you — in the latter part of the year as the road gets narrow, because there’s weight on it,” Tomlin said. “As a competitor, you like to be in big moments and big games, and so that’s exciting.”
A mid-November game doesn’t come much bigger than the Nov. 17 Steelers-Baltimore Ravens game at Acrisure Stadium. The Steelers won 18-16 to remain in first place in the AFC North. But as a result of the Steelers’ 24-19 loss at the Cleveland Browns four days later, a loss in Sunday’s 1 p.m. game at the Cincinnati Bengals could drop the Steelers (8-3) into second place if the Ravens (8-4) happen to simultaneously beat the Philadelphia Eagles.
The only other time since the AFC North’s inception 22 years ago that the Steelers played all three of their division rivals over a 15-day span was the final three games of the 2016 season. The Steelers swept the Bengals, Ravens and Browns between Dec. 18-Jan. 1 to claim the division title.
(In 2018, the Steelers also played all three AFC North rivals consecutively, but there was a bye week interspersed in it).
The way defensive captain Cameron Heyward sees it, the Steelers take the Tomlin “nameless gray faces” approach to their opponents, moving from week to week.
“When you look at our schedule, you can’t change anything (once it is released), you can’t cry about it,” Heyward said “You look at it as, ‘Who’s next on the list? How can we get better? How can we improve after our last performance?’”
First-year Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson is new to the AFC North — but as a 13-year NFL veteran he of course is not new to division rivalries. Then again, Wilson has never before played in three consecutive intra-divisional games, either.
“Sounds like playoff football,” Wilson said.
Wilson twice ran a gauntlet of each of his team’s three divisional rivals in a row. When with the Seattle Seahawks to end both the 2014 and 2016 seasons, they faced the San Francisco 49ers, Arizona Cardinals and St. Louis/Los Angeles Rams over Weeks 15-17 each year.
For more than six months, the Steelers and their fans have been acutely aware of the “Hard Knocks”-induced AFC crucible that awaited late in the season.
It’s finally here.
“It’s not three games away from now,” Wilson said, “it’s not four or five or whatever it is. It’s just right here today.”