Category: AFC Playoff Picture

AFC Playoffs: Steelers can clinch a playoff berth this week

If a few things fall their way, the Pittsburgh Steelers can secure a playoff spot this week.

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The New York Jets found themselves being the first AFC team to officially be eliminated from the playoffs. But as of now, now team has secured a playoff spot yet. The Pittsburgh Steelers have a chance to change that on Thanksgiving night.

If the Steelers beat the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday and both the Miami Dolphins and Las Vegas Raiders lose, Pittsburgh is in. A longshot? Maybe but it is comforting to even be having this conversation after 10 games. At this point last season this team was 5-5 thanks to exceptional defensive play but had no direction on offense whatsoever.

The Steelers have missed the playoffs the last two seasons after a stretch of four staright playoff births. Head coach Mike Tomlin has led this team to playoffs eight times, twice going to the Super Bowl.

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AFC playoff picture: Steelers maintain control of AFC

If the NFL playoffs started today, the Steelers would be the No. 1 see in the AFC.

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Show of hands if you woke up this morning and your favorite NFL team is 10-0. I think everyone knew the Pittsburgh Steelers would be much better but the return of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has turned this team into a contender. At this point last season, the Steelers were 5-5 and struggling to find an identity.

Looking at the current state of the AFC playoffs, things are all going according to plan. Here’s the current AFC playoff picture.

1-Pittsburgh Steelers (10-0)

2-Kansas City Chiefs (9-1)

3-Buffalo Bills (7-3)

4-Indianapolis Colts (7-3)

5-Tennessee Titans (7-3)

6-Cleveland Browns (7-3)

7-Las Vegas Raiders (6-4)

On the bubble:

8-Baltimore Ravens (6-4)

9-Miami Dolphins (6-4)

For anyone concerned about the Steelers strength of schedule, they have already beat three teams on this list and will play three more before the season is out.

With the Kansas City Chiefs nipping at the heels of the Steelers, they cannot let up. The NFL’s new playoff format means only the No. 1 seed gets a bye week and this is something Pittsburgh needs.

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How flex scheduling hurt the Steelers playoff chances

Week 17 flex scheduling may affect the Pittsburgh Steelers chances at making the playoffs

In general, flex scheduling is a good idea imposed by the NFL. It was introduced to help ensure that meaningful games late in the season got national exposure while games that had little to no effect on the playoff race are swapped out of primetime slots. But in week 17 both the Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Baltimore Ravens and Tennessee Titans vs. Houston Texans were flexed to the 4:25 kickoff spot. Here’s why that hurts the Steelers.

The AFC Playoff Picture

Let’s start at the top with the 1 seed which is held by the Baltimore Ravens. They have wrapped up the AFC North and the top seed in the AFC and do not have much of a reason to risk injury to their starters in week 17. The Buffalo Bills are in a similar scenario, they failed to win the AFC East but have clinched the 5 seed as the first wildcard, and like the Ravens, won’t be able to improve their seeding in the AFC playoffs. But the three teams between the Ravens and Bills are the 2 seed New England Patriots (12-3), the 3 seed Kansas Chiefs (11-4) and the 5 seed Houston Texans (10-5). All three teams have won division titles, and therefore earned playoff spots. But each team only trails the team seeded in front of them by 1 game and owns their respective tie-breakers.

For example, The Chiefs have a head to head win over the Patriots so if the Patriots lose and Chiefs win on Sunday, the two teams would have the same record and the Chiefs would move into the 2nd seed while the Patriots would fall to the 3rd. The same scenario holds true with the Texans. If they win and the Chiefs lose, the Texans would be able to move from the 4th seed to the 3rd seed in the AFC playoffs. When it comes to the 6th seed, the Titans will clinch the 6th seed if they beat the Texans. The easiest way Steelers will clinch the 6th seed occurs if the Tennessee Titans lose to the Texans and the Steelers beat the Baltimore Ravens. Also there’s a scenario where the Oakland Raiders can sweep in and snag the 6th seed.

Flex Scheduling’s Effect

As mentioned above the seeding of the Patriots, Chiefs and Texans can change and each team has something to play for. The Steelers, are the betting favorite at Baltimore this week because the Ravens have announced that they are sitting their starters. But, the Steelers need the Texans to win if they’re going to clinch the 6th seed. The Texans, now playing an afternoon game will have the advantage of knowing the outcome of the Kansas City Chiefs game when they take the field. If the Chiefs win earlier in the day, there’s no way for the Texans to improve their playoff seeding. If that’s the case, there’s really no point to play their starters either.

If the Texans are playing their backups against the Titans, the odds of the Titans winning dramatically increases. While Texans Head Coach Brian Billick has said that their starters will play, that stance may quickly change if the Chiefs win. Steelers Nation may be relegated to hoping that the Texans backups can fend off the Titans while the Steelers simultaneously defeat the Ravens backups.  It’s a complicated and unique scenario where the performance of the Chiefs would affect if the Texans deploy their starters or backups, and depending on what they decide the Texans coaching staff could greatly affect the Steelers’ chances at clinching the 6th seed. All because two games were flexed to afternoon kickoffs.

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Will the Pittsburgh Steelers make the playoffs?

The Steelers are on the doorstep of the playoffs.

It all comes down to one game. Ok, it all comes down to a couple of games. The cleanest way for the Steelers to make the NFL playoffs is for them to beat the Baltimore Ravens and the Houston Texans beat the Tennessee Titans. Anything else happens that things get really complicated really fast.

But after the way the team has gone sideways the last two weeks, can they finish the deal and make the playoffs?

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At this point, I have zero confidence in the Steelers to beat the Ravens, even with Baltimore playing so many backups. It’s just hard to imagine the Steelers offense being able to generate enough points to keep the Ravens honest. There is only so much the Steelers defense can do and over the last two weeks we’ve seen this group start to wear down.

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AFC playoffs: Texans plan to play starters vs Titans

Houston isn’t resting their starters this week vs Tennessee.

In addition to beating the Baltimore Ravens this week, the Pittsburgh Steelers need to have the Houston Texans beat the Tennessee Titans for the simplest solution to the Steelers making the AFC playoffs. The Ravens have already announced they play to rest several starters with the No. 1 seed in the AFC wrapped up.

But Texans head coach Bill O’Brien told the media on a conference call on Monday he plans to play to win and will hold no players back. Houston beat the Titans 24-21 two weeks ago in Tennessee. And despite the fact Houston cannot improve their draft seeding, they look to still go out and try to eliminate their division rival from the playoffs to avoid another potential showdown.

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Steelers hold onto playoff spot with win over Browns

Pittsburgh’s miraculous season continues.

Win and you are in. This must be the mantra of the Pittsburgh Steelers going forward. The Steelers four games left to play and there is no margin for error when it comes to the AFC playoffs. But after the team’s 20-13 win over the Cleveland Browns, the Steelers still hold onto the No. 6 seed in the AFC.

Here are the current AFC playoff standings.

1-Baltimore Ravens (10-2)

2-New England Patriots (10-2)

3-Kansas City Chiefs (8-4)

4-Houston Texans (8-4)

5-Buffalo Bills (9-3)

6-Pittsburgh Steelers (7-5)

On the outside looking in.

Tennessee (7-5), Oakland (6-6), Indianapolis (6-6)

It’s fairly remarkable that the Steelers are in the playoff conversation after a 1-4 start. The remaining schedule for Pittsburgh is brutal with the Ravens and Bills with Baltimore as the regular-season finale on the road.

If the Steelers go 2-2 which is highly likely they will need help behind them. We will do a full breakdown of the other three teams in the mix to see if it is realistic for the Steelers to hold onto their playoff position.

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Steelers Week 10 gut reactions

The Pittsburgh Steelers found a way to win their fourth straight game.

It was ugly but the Pittsburgh Steelers managed to pull off their fourth straight win with a 17-12 victory over the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday. The game was hard to watch with the two teams combining for 24 penalties, six turnovers and displaying poor offenses. That being said, here are my gut reactions.

I mentioned the high amount of penalties already, but the offense was absolutely horrid. I’m going to come out and say it. People that are saying Mason Rudolph’s development is similar to Ben Roethlisberger his rookie season are wrong. Rudolph was essentially given the whole 2019 season to prove to the fans, coaches, ownership and his peers that he was the Steelers quarterback of the future, and if anything, there are more questions now about his future than in Week 2. When Roethlisberger was a rookie, he entered his first game in Week 2 at the Ravens and including the playoffs, the Steelers rattled off 15 straight wins on their way to losing the AFC championship game.

Looking back at that season, Roethlisberger was more limited in his pass attempts. Rudolph had 38 attempts Sunday and seems to be limited in effectiveness and productivity. Roethlisberger was assisted by an effective running game, something Rudolph has not been lucky enough to experience. The Steelers averaged 1.6 yards per rush, and the team’s longest run was 8 yards. Rudolph and Roethlisberger are alike in that both have been bolstered by dominate defenses while they attempt to get their footing as an NFL quarterback. Their on-field performances far from parallel one another.

Now that I’ve lashed out at Rudolph’s poor performance, I have to say there’s plenty of blame to go around. The Steelers as a team have not been consistent receivers for Rudolph. Drops are too common. He doesn’t have a run game to set him up in third-and-short situations on a regular basis and just to top things off, if the Steelers manage to move the ball, they usually end up off-setting their production with offensive penalties.

No running game, no receivers, and too many penalties are not the ideal situation for a young quarterback to flourish in. It’s a frustrating situation, which is only emphasized every week because of the defense’s stellar play. When Minkah Fitzpatrick is the Steelers’ best offensive weapon and he’s on defense, changes need to be made.

As bad as the offense has been, the defense continues to impress. They won the turnover battle for the eighth straight game and limited an inconsistent Rams offense to three points. Week 10 was so difficult to pallet, partially because the Steelers offense let the Rams score nine points while the defense held them to three. The defense consistently made big plays, tallying four sacks, four takeaways, three fumbles by the opposing quarterback and a defensive touchdown.

Fitzpatrick has been clutch and showcased rare awareness and ball skills. T.J. Watt entered the game as the highest-graded edge rusher in the NFL, per Pro Football Focus, one point above the Chicago Bears’ Khalil Mack. Watt tallied five tackles and two sacks against the Rams. Steve Nelson has been a shutdown corner across from Joe Haden, helping shut out Cooper Kupp on Sunday.

Just to top it off, defensive captain Cameron Heyward entered the day as the third-highest graded interior defensive lineman at PFF and was extremely disruptive. He had three tackles, a sack, two passes defended, and three of the Steelers’ nine quarterback hits. Even that impressive stat line doesn’t sum up just how dominant he was at the point of attack. With the Steelers winning four in a row, the NFL has to wonder just how good this defense truly is.

The Steelers leave the friendly confines of Heinz Field on a short week to play the Cleveland Browns on national TV Thursday night. The Browns got their third win of the year in Week 10 at home against a surging Buffalo Bills team. But their offensive line has been extremely shaky, which has forced Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield force the ball downfield under pressure. Mayfield is second in the NFL with 12 interceptions thrown. Don’t look now, but the Steelers are vying for an AFC wild-card spot.

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