I know what you’re going to say, Acrisure Stadium has only been the name of the Steelers home venue for two seasons.

“Now do Heinz Field,” is something you’ll likely say next (I hate social media language).

The Steelers play their last home game of the 2023 regular season when they face the Bengals at Acrisure Stadium on Saturday at 4:30 p.m.

If the Steelers win, they will keep their faint postseason hopes alive for another week. If they lose, their faint playoff hopes will die (maybe not officially), and they will be one step closer to suffering their first losing season under head coach Mike Tomlin. The non-losing thing pre-dates Tomlin, in fact, and if Pittsburgh loses two of its last three games, it will be the organization’s first losing season in exactly two decades.

The Steelers finished 6-10 in 2003, and the times, they were ugly. It was the end of a weird and troubled six-year span for the Steelers, actually, one where they missed the playoffs four times and suffered three losing seasons but also managed to appear in an AFC Championship Game in 2001 and almost get back there in 2002.

The Steelers finished 7-9 in 1998 and followed that awful collapse by posting a listless 6-10 record in 1999.

Despite suffering through three losing seasons in six years, the Steelers only posted a losing record at home once, when they finished 2-6 at old Three Rivers Stadium in 1999.

Not even the ’03 team managed to lose more games than it won at Heinz Field.

Heck, I even went back and checked some of Chuck Noll’s most awful seasons, but not even the dreadful 5-11 campaign of 1988 produced a losing home record.

This brings me to the point of this article: If the Steelers lose to Cincinnati, it will be the first time the organization has posted a losing record at home since that 1999 season. That’s correct. Unless I’m missing something (home vs. away records by seasons are hard to come by unless you work hard), it would be the first time Pittsburgh posted a losing record at home since its current football venue opened in 2001.

But even if the Steelers win, so what? A 5-4 home mark isn’t exactly intimidating. And it’s not like Acrisure Stadium was hell for visitors in 2022 when they managed to fly home victorious half the time.

What does that say about the Steelers’ current state? If opposing teams aren’t afraid to come into Acrisure Stadium at any point in the season–but especially in December and January–that tells you all you need to know.

The Steelers have fallen behind by at least two scores in 31 of their last 54 games. They’ve suffered a three-game losing streak in six straight seasons. And they’re only 8-8 in their last 16 home games.

The numbers are bad all the way around, but once a team starts losing more games than it wins at home, that’s a major red flag.

It’s no wonder so many 49ers fans were able to secure tickets, invade Acrisure Stadium and witness a Week 1 beatdown of the home team on September 10.

Nobody is afraid of the Steelers. Nobody is intimidated by Acrisure Stadium, not opposing players or their fans.

Contrary to the popular belief that Heinz Field was never an intimidating place to play compared to Three Rivers Stadium, the Steelers managed to win a lot of games there over the first 21 years.

The Steelers’ current home venue used to be a house of horrors for opposing teams and their supporters. Now, it’s just a house of hushed tones,  booze, and lots of boos for the Steelers players and coaches.