Pittsburgh Steelers faltering in prime time games

There was a time when the Pittsburgh Steelers owned prime time. They were the franchise that once employed the coach who, at the time, had the highest winning percentage on Monday Night Football since the NFL starting playing games on Mondays. Seems like eons have passed to where the Steelers find themselves now.

Forget about X's and O's for a second and simply realize that, since 2011, the Steelers have struggled under the bright lights of prime time. Whether it was the horrendous 26-23 loss to the Tennessee Titans on Thursday Night football in 2012, or the 40-23 beat-down by the Chicago Bears on Sunday Night Football in 2013. Simply put, the Steelers haven't played well in prime time.

You have to go back to the 2011 season to find the last time the Steelers had a winning record (3-2) in prime-time games throughout the regular season. The Steelers are well below .500 with a 6-9 in prime-time games since 2011. In those 9 losses, the team averaged a whopping 12.6 points per game while giving up an average of 22.1 points per game.

In 2012, the Steelers finished the regular season 2-3 in prime-time games and followed that up in 2013 with a 1-3 record, not including the loss to the Minnesota Vikings in London, England.

The Steelers final prime-time record in 2014 has yet to be seen, but starting with a 26-6 loss on Thursday Night Football at the hands of the Baltimore Ravens isn't very promising.

Steelers fans everywhere genuinely hope this trend doesn't continue, not just because the team has four more prime-time games on the schedule this season, but also because the next one is their Sunday Night Football match-up in Charlotte, NC, with Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers.

Whether it's playing on national television, awkward and different preparation leading up to these games, or even a short amount of rest, there's no denying that, in recent years, the Steelers have been anything but 'primed' for prime time.