How Steelers losing to Saints could be rock bottom

New Orleans has fallen to 3-6 after a convincing home loss to Baltimore. Now, the worst thing the Steelers could do is lose to the Saints on Sunday.

To say that the Steelers have failed to adequately perform in their first eight games would be a colossal understatement and, after their away games against Buffalo and Philadelphia, the question of how things could get any worse has to be asked. With that said, it appears that things actually can get worse, and it can start this Sunday when Pittsburgh hosts the New Orleans Saints.

When looking at the six losses suffered so far, the “worst” in regards to the quality of the opponent is the one dealt by Cleveland, as the Browns are currently the only team with a losing record (3-5) to down the Steelers.

New Orleans is half a game worse than Cleveland today, with the Saints rocking an unpleasant tally of 3-6. Although a record doesn’t tell us everything, the circumstances under which New Orleans has gotten theirs does.

The Saints are 3-6 despite playing in the NFC South—easily one of the league’s weakest divisions. And while not all of their losses have been decided by convincing margins, neither have all of their wins. For context, two have been won by seven points or less, and only one was taken against an opponent with a winning record (Seattle, 6-3). Also, their sole road win was taken by a single point.

Sure, the Saints are weak, but that’s not all that plays into analyzing the quality of a potential loss, as point differentials matter as well. One thing should be certain, and that’s that the Saints won’t beat us as the Bills and Eagles did, right?

While a result as extreme as those is severely unlikely, it doesn’t mean that a loss on its own will be much easier to excuse, and that pair of games can vividly show us why.

How could a Steelers loss to New Orleans outrank the former’s road massacres?

Back in September, I voiced my concern over the state of the Steelers as they approached their deadly meeting with the Bills.

Following their 1-2 start, I was one of the many that braced themselves for what I felt could be Pittsburgh’s worst loss in quite some time. With the final score being 38-3, I would have to say that said bracing was justified; this was also the case as the Steelers strolled into Philly.

It is still rather simple to look past those losses, though, as Buffalo and Philly were each hosting a battle that it was clearly equipped to handle us in (hence the pregame point spreads being strangely large). The same cannot be said about the matchup for this weekend.

Unlike both Buffalo and Philadelphia, New Orleans looks no better than Pittsburgh, trudging through a season that will likely hand the franchise its first losing record since 2016. The Steelers will also have the luxuries of coming off a bye week and playing at home this time around.

So to summarize, if the Steelers somehow manage to fall here, it will have: happened despite them being well-rested, taken place on their own home field, been to arguably their weakest opponent yet, and given them the same number of losses that they saw in their entire regular season stretch last year. All of that makes for quite a shameful moment—and that’s assuming that the loss would even be a narrow one, which inconsistencies say is far from a guarantee.

According to ESPN, the Steelers are currently 1.5-point underdogs and, while such a spread is questionable, to say the least, it nonetheless illustrates the belief that they are very capable of taking this one. If for whatever reason they do not and fall to 2-7, I would say that it is time for Pittsburgh fans to begin hibernating for next year—assuming that there are any that haven’t already done so.