(Photo by Joe Sargent/Getty Images)
In a perfect world, the Steelers would be traveling to Nashville this afternoon for a 1 p.m. kickoff against the Titans on Sunday. However, with the global pandemic, 2020 has been far from perfect and COVID-19 has affected the NFL in the first major way this season as the Steelers-Titans game was rescheduled to Oct. 25 due to an outbreak of positive tests in the Titans organization.
The Steelers and Titans will now have their bye this week instead of their originally scheduled bye week in Week 8 for Pittsburgh and Week 7 for Tennessee, and the two teams will meet in Week 7 to make up the game. The NFL has moved the Ravens bye week from Week 8 to Week 7 and will now play the Steelers in Week 8.
Following their bye week, the Steelers will have two consecutive games at Heinz Field against the Eagles on Oct. 11 and Browns on Oct. 18. The Steelers will now have four consecutive games at home for the first time since at least the 1970 merger, according to Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
After the Steelers' Week 6 game against the Browns, they'll have three consecutive road games against the aforementioned Titans and Ravens, plus a Week 9 meeting with the Cowboys in "Jerry's World." Traveling to Baltimore with the Ravens coming off a bye week after the Steelers played against the Titans will be an immense challenge, but as Mike Tomlin said when asked about playing 13 straight games without a break, "We do not care."
On paper, the three road games in the middle of their schedule will be the Steelers' biggest test this year. They will play seven of their final 11 games on the road, but this is an unusual season and unprecedented times. The Steelers knew going into this abnormal year they would have to be light on their feet and adjust accordingly, so they'll have to do just that and be essentially road warriors for the final 11 games of the season.
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