The Pittsburgh Steelers and Detroit Lions are preparing to go head-to-head in prime-time on Sunday Night Football in Week 8, and the Lions are coming off of their bye-week in Week 7.
This is something the Steelers should be comfortable with, considering the Cincinnati Bengals were also coming off a bye in Week 6 before they went to Heinz Field last Sunday and lost. Mike Tomlin spoke about the advantage a team has after an extra week of preparation and how his team respects the preparation standpoint of an entire additional week to get ready for an opponent.
Last week, I analyzed the Bengals’ record coming off of a bye-week under Marvin Lewis, to see if there were any trends, and I’m doing the same with the Lions this week, but this time analyzing the Matthew Stafford era.
Stafford was drafted in 2009, and since he became the Lions top pick, Detroit is 6-2 coming off of the bye.
Check out the results:
2009 - L vs. STL
2010 - W vs. WAS
2011 - L at CHI
2012 - W at PHI
2013 - W at CHI
2014 - W vs. MIA
2015 - W at GB
2016 - W vs. JAX
Under head coach Jim Caldwell, who’s been in his position since 2014, the Lions have yet to lose the week after their bye.
Last week’s analysis showed the Bengals’ very strange W, L, W, L, W, L trend after bye-weeks. This trend hinted the Bengals would win the game in Week 7 if it held up, but as fans of the Black-and-gold know, that trend was broken as the Steelers soundly beat Cincinnati 29-14.
So, trends add spice to a pre-game analysis and sometimes point to things to come, but they also can be nothing more than historical facts. In this case, Steelers fans are hoping to break Caldwell’s and Stafford’s streak of wins after the bye-week this Sunday at Ford Field.