Steelers: Bye Week History

As the Pittsburgh Steelers are in their bye week for the 2025 NFL season, Head Coach Mike Tomlin will bring back his Steelers for a home game against the Cleveland Browns sporting an eight-game winning streak for games following the bye week. The last time Mike Tomlin lost a game following the bye week came in 2016 when after losing to the New England Patriots on October 23, two weeks later the Steelers returned only to lose again this time to the Baltimore Ravens on the road by a score of 21-14.

As the next game approaches, Tomlin’s record coming off a bye week is impressive. Since taking over in 2007, there have been 18 games following a bye week and the Steelers have won 15 of them. The only losses came at the hands of the Denver Broncos in Tomlin’s first bye week follow-up game in 2007 losing 31-28. Then in 2014, The Saints upended Pittsburgh 35-32, with the only other loss as mentioned above to Baltimore.

Before the Saints loss and after the Broncos loss, Tomlin and the Steelers had won six straight post bye week games. When it comes to the games just before a bye Tomlin’s a winner there as well. In 18 games, the record is 13-5. Last season in week eight the Steelers defeated the New York Giants 26-18 in a home game then two weeks later took out the Washington Commanders on their field 28-27.

In post-by-week games since 2007, the Steelers have outscored opponents 445 to 288. The average score for those games has been 25-16. In game before a bye week Pittsburgh has scored 404 points to the opposing teams’ 354 or an average final score of 22-19. In Tomlin’s 18 seasons at the helm, four times his teams have scored over 30 points. The highest total of 38 came on two occasions, first in Tomlin’s second season when the Bengals were on the wrong side of a 39-10 score. 12 years later the Philadelphia Eagles lost by 11 to Pittsburgh 38-29. 

In 2018, on October 28, the Cleveland Browns lost to the Steelers 33-18. The only other 30 plus score came in the loss to New Orleans on November 30 as the Steelers scored 32 to the Saints’ 35. In pre-bye week games only once did Pittsburgh top 30 points and it was in a loss to the Oakland Raiders in 2012 when the Black and Silver topped the Black and Gold 34-31. 

There has been only one shutout in a pre-bye week or post-bye week game and it was Pittsburgh on the winning end of that one beating the Seattle Seahawks 21-0 on October 7 in Tomlin’s rookie season as head coach. The earliest time in the season for the Steelers to have their bye week has been week five which came on three different occasions (2012, 2015, 2020). The latest came in week 13 of the 2014 season, and week 12 of the 2011 season. 

Pittsburgh also got their bye in week 10 in 2017, 2022, and last season. So, as the Browns come to town on October 12 for the first meeting of the 2025 season for both clubs, Pittsburgh will be hosting the visitors with a 3-1 record while Cleveland after losing to Minnesota is 1-4. With the Baltimore Ravens getting smoked by the Houston Texans in their last game, it gives Pittsburgh a golden opportunity to bury the Ravens in the AFC North this early in the season.



On a final note, just before Mike Tomlin took over, in Bill Cowher’s final season of 2006, “The Chin” had his bye week in week four of the season and the Steelers had lost the two previous games to Jacksonville and Cincinnati. When the Steelers resumed play in week five, they lost yet again this time to the San Diego Charters 23-13. In Cowher’s final season Pittsburgh won four of their final five games but finished 8-8. To close this out, there has only been one holiday when the Steelers played following a bye week and that came on Halloween 2021 when the Steelers were in Cleveland where they won 15-10.