Pittsburgh’s latest trip to Cleveland added another odd entry to one of the NFL’s most stubborn trends. The Steelers fell to the Browns, 27-24, on Thursday night, and with it their Thursday-night road misery against AFC North opponents rolled on.
That loss pushed Pittsburgh to 0-10 in Thursday night road games against divisional opponents since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger. The streak started in 1980 and now stretches across 46 years.
Cleveland has been a major part of that run. The Browns have handed the Steelers four of those 10 losses, including each of Pittsburgh’s last three Thursday night visits to Cleveland before this one.
The full list shows just how strange the pattern has been. Pittsburgh’s losses came against the Oilers on Dec. 4, 1980, the Jaguars on Dec. 2, 1999, the Browns on Dec. 10, 2009, the Ravens on Nov. 28, 2013, the Ravens again on Sept. 11, 2014, the Browns on Nov. 14, 2019, the Browns on Sept. 22, 2022, the Browns on Nov. 21, 2024, the Bengals on Oct. 16, 2025, and the Browns again on Oct. 1, 2026.
The first two losses on that list stand out for another reason: neither opponent is in the AFC North now. The Oilers franchise became the Tennessee Titans, while the Jaguars later moved to the AFC South after the league’s 2002 realignment.
And the issue for Pittsburgh goes beyond divisional Thursday road games. The Steelers are now 3-17 in Thursday night road games since the merger, which CBS Sports Research says is the lowest winning percentage in the NFL over that stretch. Overall, Pittsburgh is 12-20 on Thursdays, including home games.
Cleveland, meanwhile, keeps treating Thursday nights at home very differently. The Browns came into the game 10-2 in home Thursday matchups and had won nine in a row in Cleveland. That run stayed intact Thursday, along with their recent edge over Pittsburgh on their own turf.
Since the start of the 2019 season, the Steelers are 1-7 against Cleveland on the road.
Pittsburgh also had a head coach with a strong Thursday record in its corner. Mike McCarthy entered the game 17-8 on Thursdays from his time with the Packers and Cowboys, and those 17 wins were the most by any NFL head coach. It still wasn’t enough to change the result.
So the wait goes on for Pittsburgh. The Steelers will need another Thursday night road game against a divisional opponent before they get a chance to finally end a streak that has now lived for nearly half a century.
In Other News...
Steelers Defense Just Took A Brutal Hit Against The Browns
A Thursday night collision with the Browns brought an early injury scare for Pittsburgh, as defensive tackle Derrick Harmon was carted off with a foot injury and quickly listed as questionable. The timing could not have been worse for a defense already trying to slow Clevelands momentum, with the Browns taking a 21-10 lead into halftime.
Harmons exit leaves the Steelers with a bigger problem than just one missing body in the middle. His presence matters in both the run game and the pass rush, and Pittsburgh now has to adjust on the fly while trying to keep Cleveland from controlling the line of scrimmage. [Read more 🡒]
Aaron Rodgers Just Complicated One Steelers Blame Game
Aaron Rodgers added a layer to the Steelers postgame frustration after the late possession in the loss to Cleveland, pushing back on the idea that the play was simply about Jaylen Warren being the intended answer on second down. Rodgers said five players were running routes on the snap, a reminder that what looks obvious from the outside can be a lot messier once protection, timing and route distribution come into play.
For a Pittsburgh offense still trying to sort through what went wrong in a tight, late-game sequence, that matters. The ball ending up with Warren does not automatically tell the full story of the design, and Rodgers explanation points to the kind of breakdown that can involve more than one player and more than one decision. In a game that already invited blame, the more interesting question may be how much of that play was about execution, and how much was about the pressure closing in around it. [Read more 🡒]
Steelers Fans Already Have A Rodgers-McCarthy Sideline Problem
The Steelers got a little reminder in Week 4 that bringing familiar faces together does not always mean smooth sailing. During Thursday nights game against the Browns, Aaron Rodgers and Mike McCarthy were caught in a heated sideline exchange after Rodgers grew frustrated over a delayed play call, and McCarthy fired back with a profane retort.
For Pittsburgh, it was the kind of moment that can linger because of how much history is wrapped into it. Rodgers and McCarthy won a Super Bowl together in Green Bay before reuniting in Pittsburgh, so the chemistry was never going to be a mystery, but neither was the possibility of old competitive habits resurfacing when the pressure ratchets up. Fans who were hoping for a clean reunion got a glimpse of something a lot messier, and it will be worth watching how that dynamic plays out moving forward. [Read more 🡒]