Pittsburgh Steelers: Closing stretch could make AFC North interesting
Coming off of an upset loss to Denver and facing the Chargers in Week 13, the Pittsburgh Steelers need to find their form in a tough closing stretch.
The Pittsburgh Steelers appeared to be riding high as they came into their Week 12 matchup with the Denver Broncos. They had won six-straight games after a 1-2-1 start to the 2018 season and seemed to be in the driver’s seat against a lesser Broncos team. Instead, the Denver defense stifled the Steelers offense and handed Pittsburgh their third loss of the season.
An unexpected loss, in a vacuum, isn’t the worst thing for any potential playoff team. Every team has down weeks and it’s better to experience them in the regular season than the postseason. However, for the Steelers and the situation that they currently face, that loss could be quite detrimental to them as they try to wrap up the AFC North.
For starters, both the Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens are coming on strong right now. The former trails the Steelers by three games in the division, but have won their last two games and look rejuvenated by the dismissal of Hue Jackson and Todd Haley. The Ravens, meanwhile, have a spark in Lamar Jackson, also having won two-straight and sitting just 1.5 games behind Pittsburgh. Baltimore is obviously the more likely threat to Pittsburgh in this instance.
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Where things are about to get tricky for the Steelers is their closing stretch of the regular season. Starting with Week 13, they take on the 8-3 Los Angeles Chargers, who have been highly impressive of late. Though the lowly Oakland Raiders are up next, matchups with the New England Patriots and New Orleans Saints are up next before finishing up against the Cincinnati Bengals without Andy Dalton.
It’s completely foreseeable, given the strength of their remaining slate, that the Steelers could lose three games and finish the season with a 9-6-1 record. That puts them in dangerous territory in itself. But then, when you factor in the media circus around the team right now and their loss to Denver, you can’t rule out another upset loss in this stretch either.
Even if another upset doesn’t come, finishing at 9-6-1 puts the Steelers in serious jeopardy. If the Ravens, whose closing stretch is more friendly, can go 4-1 to finish their season, that would put Baltimore in as the AFC North winners. Meanwhile, a perfect finish for the Browns and a 1-4 finish for the Steelers could put Cleveland ahead of them.
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Granted, the most likely scenario is that the Steelers, as they’ve often done, bounce back and don’t finish 2-3 or worse over the final stretch of the regular season. However, with the slate ahead, this team needs to sharpen up in a big way if they want to avoid being put in a precarious position when it comes to a potential playoff berth.