Steelers Have 1 Specific Group Of People Not To Be Thankful For This Thanksgiving

The Pittsburgh Steelers will enter Week 13 with a record of 8-3 and a difficult AFC North contest against the Cincinnati Bengals on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. While the two teams are on different sides of the playoff landscape, it will be a hard-fought matchup, and one the Steelers are actually underdogs going into. Pittsburgh is in a good position to go to the postseason for the second-straight season, but the fan base is longing for a victory if that occurs. Head Coach Mike Tomlin hasn't won a game in the tournament since the 2016 season, which has earned him plenty of criticism.

Dating back to May when the NFL released the 2024 regular season schedule, it was expected that Steelers fans wouldn't appreciate how it was set up for their team. The final eight games entailed six within the division, and another two against juggernauts in the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs. Now, entering the most important stretch of the campaign, Pittsburgh sits at 8-3, but has no guaranteed wins left remaining.

The league gives the tough tasks of designing the schedule to a group of executives. Vice President of Broadcasting Michael North, Senior Vice President of Broadcasting Howard Katz, Senior Director of Broadcasting Blake Jones, Director of Broadcasting Charlotte Carey, Vice President of Broadcasting Onnie Bose, and Broadcasting Senior Coordinator Lucy Popko have an extremely difficult task year in and year out.

Unfortunately for the Steelers, everything can't be perfect and as Thanksgiving rolls around, Pittsburgh isn't just staring down a brutal finish to the year, but also has a rough five-game stretch that began against the Cleveland Browns in Week 12.

To make matters even worse, the organization will have to play on two more short weeks with a Saturday game versus the Baltimore Ravens (that absolutely could decide the AFC North), as well as a game five days later against the back-to-back Super Bowl champions in the Chiefs. One week after another reminds the Black and Gold faithful that the franchise was done no favors by the group of six schedule-makers.

The Steelers already got an explanation from Bose about why the matchup against the Chiefs was chosen to be on Christmas Day, but overall, the team can't be happy with the schedule, as some have already made their opinions known. The unfortunate part is that there is nothing that can be done now, and Tomlin will have to keep himself or his team from making excuses regarding the hard stretch.

A lot goes into making a schedule filled with 272 games and there are going to be teams that get the short end of the stick. In 2024, it's very easy to argue that the Steelers were dealt the worst hand possible. While Pittsburgh is in a good position at 8-3, each game moving forward will be a reminder to the fans and players that the slate is one of the league's toughest. If Pittsburgh wants to be in the postseason, it's going to earn it.

Steelers Planning To Take Stretch That Ends Season One Game At A Time

Looking ahead won't do anyone in the locker room any good, so the approach and message will be to simply take it one contest at a time. Each opponent moving forward will provide its own challenges, but Pittsburgh can't win all of the games at once. The NFL schedule-makers surely owe the Steelers going forward, but as the team prepares for Week 13, one group of people everyone in the Steel City isn't necessarily thankful for work outside of the league office.

Do you still think the Steelers got a bad hand in regards to the 2024 schedule? Let us know in the comments below!

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