One of the words bouncing around this week among Steelers fans has been the dreaded "trap game" phrase.
There's no such thing in the NFL, where any team can beat the other in a given week, but there are certainly more winnable games than others.
Here's the thing, both the Steelers and Ravens have traditionally struggled the week after playing each other.
How much so?
By beating the Ravens last week, Mike Tomlin improved his career record to 140-74-1, a winning percentage of .653. That winning percentage is 11th all-time among coaches with at least 100 games under their belts. But he's 13-14 in his career against the Ravens in the regular season, not counting the postseason. The week after playing the Ravens, the Steelers are 15-11, including 7-6 coming off a victory over their bitter rival. That means his record against the Ravens and the week after playing Baltimore is just 28-25, a winning percentage of .528, far less than his career mark.
It doesn't get any better for Baltimore's John Harbaugh, who has a 123-76 career record, a winning percentage of .618. Harbaugh is 13-12 his his career against the Steelers. But the week after playing the Steelers under Harbaugh, the Ravens are likewise 13-12, including just 6-8 after a win over Pittsburgh.
If you take the Steelers-Ravens games out of the equation for both coaches, and just as importantly, what happens the week after they play each other, Tomlin is 112-49-1. Harbaugh would be 97-52.
The two teams take a lot out of each other, both when they play and what it does to them the next game.
That's why Wednesday, Tomlin took it easy on his team, giving them a "hat day." That's a practice where the players wear a hat but not a helmet. And they aren't in pads. It's a glorified walk-through. Typically, those are reserved for the practice before a Thursday night game.
But Tomlin saw his team needed a break after a physical game against the Ravens. The Steelers should have had their bye week after the game against the Ravens. Instead, it got moved to Week 4 because of a COVID-19 situation involving the Titans.
"What he did for us, I have never seen that done," said wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster. "We had hats at practice because of the amount of guys on the injury list or just recovering. "We had multiple games back-to-back with a bye week we should have had, happen earlier in the season."
On the plus side, the Steelers will get some additional time off after the next time they play the Ravens on Thanksgiving night. Because that will be a Thursday night game, the players will get a much-needed weekend off.
MORE STEELERS
• According to a league source, the NFL fined Steelers linebacker Robert Spillane $4,000 for his goal-line hit on Titans running back Derrick Henry in Week 7 that stopped Henry short of reaching the end zone for lowering his helmet on contact. Spillane is appealing the fine. Spillane makes $39,705 per week during the regular season, so a $4,000 fine is not insignificant. It works out to a little more than 10 percent of his paycheck for that game, even more after taxes are deducted. Spillane has appealed the ruling. -- Lolley
• The NFL doesn't want to necessarily add two more teams to the playoff field as recommended by the competition committee this week, but that's something the league could do if it has to start canceling games because of COVID-19. As we've seen in recent weeks, having players remain diligent isn't enough to keep them from being exposed to COVID-19. And even though the players are tested during their days off on the bye, we've seen players on the bye testing positive when they get back to the team facility, such as the Ravens' Marlon Humphrey last weekend. Players are creatures of habit, so if you keep them busy during the season, they typically go to work and then go home. But the bye can allow them a little something outside of their regular schedule. In that respect, the Steelers' bye in Week 4 might have been a good thing. Because they had an extra day of practice that week, they had that one more day of structure. And their bye came before the virus uptick of recent weeks, as well. As for putting eight teams in the playoffs, that could help regain lost revenue if the NFL has to start canceling games because the bye weeks have run out and there's nowhere to put them. It's also not realistic to expect players to remain diligent if they're completely out of the playoff picture or, more importantly to hang around to play a meaningless game in Week 18. Adding the extra playoff team would be very attractive to the networks -- and potentially help keep the salary cap from bottoming out in 2021. -- Lolley
PENGUINS
• The NHL still hasn't firmed up a starting date for the 2020-21 season, which explains why there's been no word on when training camps will get underway. The league has, however, informed teams that they will be able to open their facilities, such as the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in Cranberry, to players who wish to use them -- but not until there are at least five such players who ask to work out there. And when that happens, participants will have to operate under the strict Phase 2 regulations that were in place as the NHL prepared to restart the 2019-20 season, including one that limits workout groups to no more than six players on the ice at a time."When we get five Penguins players that request to use our facility, we'll open it," Jim Rutherford said. "Those (Phase 2) guidelines are very restrictive. ... Once guys start coming back in and we get five guys, we will officially open the facility to our players." The season usually has been in progress for about a month by now, so this is an offseason unlike any other. Nonetheless, Rutherford said members of the team's training and conditioning staff are satisfied with how players have reacted to the workout regimens they were given. "They've been in regular communication with our players and they're very pleased with what our guys have done," Rutherford said. "They've been very determined to stay on a good training regimen." -- Dave Molinari
• The Penguins have been in "win-now" mode for over a decade, and have been legitimate Stanley Cup contenders for most of that time. A willingness to sacrifice pieces of their future -- which is to say, early-round draft choices and quality prospects -- for short-term roster upgrades is part of the reason they won Cups in 2009, 2016 and 2017. That approach comes at a cost, however, and the Penguins likely will begin to pay it in a few years, when core players such as Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang have moved out of their primes, and the pool of players on the organizational depth chart who are capable of making major contributions at the major-league level is considerably smaller than that of most teams. And while the NFL and NHL operate under dramatically different systems, in everything from player-procurement to how financial matters are handled, there are some similarities, as evidenced in a Boston radio interview New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick did this week. "I mean, look, we paid (quarterback) Cam Newton $1 million," he told WEEI. "It's obvious that we didn't have any money. It's nobody's fault. That's what we did the last five years. We sold out. We won three Super Bowls, played in a fourth and played in an AFC championship game." Belichick certainly doesn't seem to regret the win-now mindset his club had and, from all indications, the Penguins feel equally at peace with the all-in approach they have taken almost every season since Crosby and Malkin joined the organization. -- Molinari
• A good case can be made that the Penguins should have brought back free-agent forward Dominik Kahun, who signed a $975,000, one-year deal with Edmonton this week, rather than, say, Evan Rodrigues. Both would have been slotted into bottom-six roles going into training camp, but Kahun, who was sent to Buffalo in the trade-deadline deal that brought Rodrigues and Conor Sheary from Buffalo, has more offensive upside, and likely would be a better fit if injuries force the Penguins to find a winger for temporary duty on the top two lines. Kahun was on the market for the better part of a month before the Oilers -- presumably at the behest of Kahun's friend and one-time teammate in Germany, reigning league MVP Leon Draisaitl -- landed him, and Kahun hardly is the biggest name who still was available long after the start of free agency on Oct. 9. Even now, that list includes the likes of forwards Mike Hoffman and Ilya Kovalchuk and defensemen Travis Hamonic and Sami Vatanen. That players of such caliber still are on the market does not surprise Rutherford. "It's the times we're in," he said. "It's the (salary-cap ceiling staying at $81.5 million). You knew guys were still going to be available. There's still some good players there. I would suspect it's a poker game now. Some of those guys feel they should get to a certain level in their salary, and teams only have so much (cap) room." -- Molinari
PIRATES
• The Pirates went without a clear-cut starting center fielder in 2020, with three players receiving roughly the same amount of time at the position: Cole Tucker with 155 1/3 innings, Jarrod Dyson with 143 1/3 innings and Bryan Reynolds with 129 1/3 innings. The Pirates do have Anthony Alford and Jared Oliva on the roster, and both could potentially slide into that role next year. But don’t count out Reynolds. Derek Shelton and Ben Cherington both have faith at him at that position. “Shelty is very comfortable running Bryan Reynolds out to center field,” Cherington said this week. “I think that'll just depend on how our outfield evolves.” Reynolds was drafted as a center fielder, and while he profiles better at a corner spot, he has done well in his time at his natural position. "I want to play center field,” Reynolds said near the end of the regular season. “I really like center. I just think you get better reads, see better.” Of course, PNC Park’s left field is so large the outfield almost needs to have two center fielders. Per the Society of American Baseball Research, who awarded Gold Gloves this season, Reynolds just missed out on a nomination in left field. For a very defense-conscious team, the Pirates will need to take a long look to see if it makes more sense to put Alford, Oliva or an outside player in left instead. -- Alex Stumpf
• Jason Martin has declared free agency after being outrighted off the roster last week. With his time with the Pirates potentially coming to a close, it's worth remembering that Martin was actually promoted to the majors before Reynolds in 2019. That was partially because he had a little more AAA experience, but the two were considered at the time to be very comparable prospects. Had it not been for Reynolds going on a tear to start his career, Martin could have ultimately been the outfielder the Pirates kept in the majors last year. -- Stumpf
• There has already been a lot of turnover at the catcher spot this offseason, with Luke Maile and John Ryan Murphy being designated for assignment and claiming Michael Perez off waivers from the Rays. There will likely be more moves to come. “We know long term organizationally that’s an area that we want to make deeper and better,” Cherington said. Maile and Murphy can both declare free agency if they so choose, and the Pirates liked having a couple veterans compete for the backup job during the first spring training. Beyond the majors, the Pirates don’t have a notable catching prospect. The only new backstop they brought into the system this year was undrafted free agent Joe Jimenez, who in a normal draft year would have probably been selected on the last day, after the 10th round. The Pirates will be active in trade talks this offseason, and that is probably their best route to finding Jacob Stallings’ heir. -- Stumpf