The stats don’t lie.

An 0-3 start to the NFL season is almost always a death sentence for NFL teams. Especially for ones without a franchise caliber QB behind center.

Only six teams have made the playoffs since 1980 after an 0-3 start with the 2018 Houston Texans being the sixth team to it.

While Mason Rudolph is capable of keeping the Steelers competitive in games as he showed vs the Seahawks in week 2 and the 49ers Sunday afternoon, unfortunately for the Steelers Rudolph is no DeShaun Watson.

There’s every reason to think the Steelers are done and they probably are, but in a conference filled with mediocrity with little separation after New England and Kansas City, there’s reason to still have some slight optimism that a 2013 type situation is going to be in play where Pittsburgh could get to around 8-8 and at least be in the playoff discussion late in the year.

The good news for the Steelers:

*They boast the third easiest schedule the rest of the way based on combined 2018/2019 records.

*2 of their 3 losses have been against NFC teams

*Eight of their final 13 games are against the Bengals (2), Dolphins, Cardinals, Jets, Bills, Browns (2). No matter all the doom and gloom right now, the Steelers are not Cincinnati, Miami, Arizona or New York Jets bad. Those remain games they should not be losing. Buffalo is a fluke 3-0 and a bad football team with a lucky start. Another very winnable game for an average Steelers’ team. 6-2 against that group should still be the expectation.

Pittsburgh gets the Colts at home and Steelers – Ravens are always 50-50 games no matter whose behind center. There’s your 8-8 route that still seems much more likely than this group only coming up with 4-5 wins this season that some are now trying to predict.