My friends, it is with a heavy heart I inform you that the Pittsburgh Steelers are back in action.

Coming off their bye week, the Steelers will travel to Los Angeles to take on the Rams at Sofi Stadium.

Sunday’s 4:25 matchup provides a very interesting collision of historical trends, pinning Pittsburgh’s post-bye success under Mike Tomlin against the west coast struggles the team has had.

Tomlin’s Steelers are a stellar 12-4 coming out of the bye week, including winning their first game last season coming out of the bye. In fact, the Steelers are on a 6-game winning streak coming out of the bye, dating back to the 2017 season.

However, Tomlin’s Steelers are a depressing 3-7 in the Pacific Time Zone.

The time change from the east coast to the west coast can mess with anyone, but the Steelers have had it particularly rough against any western team.

They haven’t traveled out that far since 2021, when they played LA’s other team, the Chargers, losing in a firefight, 41-37.

As for the Rams, the Steelers haven’t met them “in a football lifetime” as Tomlin put it in his Tuesday press conference.

These two teams last met in 2019, when the Rams visited Heinz Field in a 17-12 Steelers win.

Indeed, it was a lifetime ago in the football world. The starting quarterbacks in this game featured Jared Goff for LA, and Mason Rudolph for Pittsburgh.

Aside from the quarterback room, both rosters have experienced a ton of turnover since then, and the Rams have obtained a Super Bowl ring in the meantime.

LA, coming off a 26-9 win vs Josh Dobbs and the Arizona Cardinals, are going to give Pittsburgh’s defense a lot to handle. Led by experienced starter Matthew Stafford, the Rams offense now has Cooper Kupp back from injury, who is always a threat on the field.

In only 2 games so far this year, Kupp has 15 receptions for 266 yards.

But even if the Steelers do manage to keep Kupp in check, the Rams can throw the ball to rookie phenom Puka Nacua, who is currently leading the entire National Football League in receptions. The 22 year old has nearly 600 yards on the year so far, and has been targeted 70 times through six games.

Nacua may actually pose the biggest threat to the Steelers right now, but besides Kupp, the Rams have several other utility players who also do their jobs well.

Perhaps this would be the perfect breakout game for Joey Porter Jr., but the Steelers have still not turned over the keys to the rookie out of Penn State. He’s allowed to drive the car, but only around the block once or twice, and then he has to bring it back.

Instead, that challenge will primarily be left up to Levi Wallace and Patrick Peterson, who both need a big-time game as criticism of them continues to ramp up.

As for the Steelers offense, they have a lot to prove still as well. The bye week last year provided that unit a chance to reset, where they really geared their system towards the running game with Najee Harris and started to shift gears a little. They weren’t great last year post-bye, but they were better.

Obviously, you need the Steelers offense to be more than just “better”, but with Matt Canada still employed as the offensive coordinator, many are still going to be rightfully skeptical of how good things could be.

They still have not had a 400-yard day of offense under Canada, and still have only scored 30 points twice (both were losses) under his reign.

In fairness to Matt, it is not 100% his fault. We can debate exactly what the number is (I tend to believe it’s pretty high), but it’s not 100%. The players under him need to do a better job of executing. That’s a typical media-friendly phrase players have been using when asked about the offense’s struggles, but it’s also a true one.

Kenny Pickett has his moments, but we have still yet to see a complete game from him, now with 17 cracks at it. The running game is awful, and while that is definitely partly caused by scheming, Najee Harris has had a brutal start to the year.

It’s caused people to question whether the Steelers made the right choice back in 2021 when they drafted the running back in the first round, something more and more teams are shying away from. That’s compounded with an undrafted free agent in Jaylen Warren currently outplaying Harris with roughly equal snaps.

It’s a little premature to judge where Harris was taken, I think we forget how dominant he can be when he really gets going, but he definitely needs to show more than he currently is.

As does the offense as a whole, although they will be getting reinforncements to help do that. Most notably, tight end Pat Freiermuth is expected to return from a hamstring injury, and wide receiver Diontae Johnson, on IR since Week 2, is also expected to come back.

Johnson is the biggest key in helping Pickett get established early in games. One of the most reliable route-runners in the league, Johnson’s consistent ability yo get open with ease can help the Steelers do what they need to do most: get going early in games.

Kenny Pickett has 4 fourth quarter comebacks in his 17-game NFL career. It’s a testament to his clutch gene, but also a damning condemnation of the Steelers offense.

Why does he have to come back late in games so often? Because the Steelers offense can’t establish anything early.

If there’s any hopes of starting to change that trend post-bye, Diontae Johnson is going to be a key part of that.

But it won’t be an easy day in LA. The Rams defense ranks 13th overall in the NFL, and they average just 19.5 points per game. They are also a top ten defense in the red zone.

Put that against a Steelers team that averages 15.8 points per game (30th ranked), and that’s a recipe for a rough day.

However, their biggest weakness comes in the ground game. LA ranks 22nd in rushing defense, on average allowing 122.2 yards per game.

This is an excellent opportunity for Pittsburgh to start and revive their run game.

It’s not going to be an easy day for the Steelers. The Rams are a better team than their 3-3 record states, and they will be looking to distance themselves from the Chargers in the NFC West.

At the same time, however, this is a crucial game for Pittsburgh. With every team in their division winning last week, the Steelers are barely clinging to their second place spot in the AFC North.

Sunday should be rather interesting.

(Featured photo of Steelers vs Rams in 2019 by Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)