Even before the Pittsburgh Steelers' second-half comeback on Sunday Night Football against the Baltimore Ravens, capped off by rookie kicker Tyler Loop's missed 44-yard field goal as time expired, they were handed what had to be considered a little bit of good news.
At halftime, it was confirmed that the winner of the Ravens-Steelers game would host the 12-5 Houston Texans in the Monday night game of Wild Card Weekend.
Aside from the extra day of rest, why might this be considered good news? Because the Steelers haven't lost a home game on Monday Night Football since 1991.
Their mid-December win over the Miami Dolphins at Acrisure Stadium was their 23rd consecutive home victory on Monday Night Football. Their most recent loss came at Three Rivers Stadium, a 23-20 loss to the New York Giants on October 14, 1991. Their winning streak began on October 19, 1992, with a 20-0 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals.
The streak includes a 15-0 record since Acrisure Stadium (formerly Heinz Field) opened back in 2001. On the flip side, the Texans have never managed to win a road playoff game (0-6 since their first playoff appearance in 2011).
We're here to tell you that none of this means anything heading into Monday night's Wild Card showdown.
Pittsburgh Steelers' historic 34-year-old streak means very little, if anything
First of all, there's a little something that is being conveniently ignored about that 23-game "win" streak, and it's the fact that there was actually a 24th game that Pittsburgh lost. Back in 2020, their game against the Washington Football Team was pushed back to Monday, December 7, due to COVID-19-related restrictions.
They lost by a score of 23-17, a loss which ended what had previously been a perfect season (11-0), sending them into a tailspin that featured five losses in six games, including their Wild Card playoff game.
But because that wasn't an official "Monday Night Football" game, since it was a postponed game that started at 5:00 p.m. ET (and featured no fans in attendance), it is conveniently ignored when it comes to the preservation of this 34-year-old streak. If it were included, their win streak in such games would be sitting at five, rather than 23.
Then there's the fact that Pittsburgh's opponents in home Monday Night Football games have not exactly been great. Pittsburgh was favored to win 21 of these 23 games, according to historical data from StatMuse. The lone exceptions were in 1998 against the Green Bay Packers and in 2023 against the Cleveland Browns.
As 3-point underdogs against Green Bay, they won by a score of 27-20. As 2-point underdogs against Cleveland, they won by a score of 26-22.
So anything worse than 21-2 in those 23 games would have been considered a disappointment. And for what it's worth, they were 6-point favorites in the game they lost against Washington. Again, it's not as if there's something different in the North Shore air on Monday nights that has been propelling the franchise to victory after victory.
They opened as 3.5-point underdogs against Houston at DraftKings Sportsbook this weekend, making the Texans the biggest road favorite in the history of Monday Night Football at Acrisure Stadium.
And it's not hard to see why, given the league-best defense that led the Texans to their best single-season point differential in their 24-year history.
Pittsburgh's most recent matchup against Houston also did not go well. It took place at NRG Stadium in Houston back in October 2023, and the Texans walked away with a 30-6 victory, marking one of the worst losses of the Mike Tomlin era.
While the Texans' road playoff history might also provide Steelers fans with reason for optimism, that might not mean much either. Their previous eight playoff appearances have all come as AFC South champions, so they have never gone on the road in the Wild Card round. All six of their Divisional Round appearances have been road games, and they have never made it to the AFC Championship Game.
The Texans are set to enter the playoffs on a league-best nine-game winning streak following their 3-5 start, while the Steelers have won four out of five after starting the season 6-6.