Steelers difficult schedule could lead to poor record in 2019

The Pittsburgh Steelers failed to make the playoffs in 2018. Here’s why their 2019 schedule could yield similar results this year.

Most teams may see a 9-6-1 record and think that was a pretty successful season. Not for us Steelers fans. We hold our franchise to very high expectations, and we were disappointed when Pittsburgh fell short of the playoffs in 2018.

Unfortunately, the 2019 season has a chance to yield similar results.

As much as we all want the Steelers to bounce back with a 12 or 13 win season in 2019 and stick it to Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell, that may be more difficult than we originally thought.

The Steelers have a pretty difficult schedule on paper, and it may be hard for them to muster up double-digit wins this year. Beginning the season with Sunday night road game against the Super Bowl champion, New England Patriots will be no treat.

Following week one are two games vs the NFC West – playing the Seahawks, then traveling to the west coast to face Kyle Shanahan’s 49ers. The Steelers then have two divisional games against the Bengals and Ravens before traveling back to the Pacific coast for a matchup against the Chargers.

The Steelers get to round out the first half of the season with a home game against the Dolphins, but are then quickly met by the Colts and Rams in back-to-back games. The final seven games of the season seem much more manageable, but also include four divisional games in that stretch.

Many analysts are worried about how the Steelers will fare without All-Pro receiver, Antonio Brown. Pittsburgh has a lot of question marks on offense with no proven wide receiver outside of JuJu Smith-Schuster.

The first half of the season will prove to be difficult, and they could have growing pains trying to find out what works on offense. It is still unclear which receiver will emerge as the team’s number two option. If the Steelers struggle to get going offensively, we could be looking at a very disheartening record in the first half of the regular season.

Obviously, there are a lot of unknowns about the 2019 season. The Steelers are a good organization, and it is entirely possible that they could pull off a few ‘upsets’ in the first 10 weeks of the season.

If they can go into the second half of the season with a winning record against teams like the Cardinals, Bengals, Bills, and Jets, they will be in great shape. However, a poor start to the 2019 season could make a comeback very difficult.