It's been an interesting season for the Iowa Hawk-- I mean, Pittsburgh Steelers -- in 2023. To put it as bluntly and honestly as possible, the Pittsburgh Steelers haven't passed the eye test as a potential playoff team all year, and they unfortunately added a few gallons of gasoline to that fire over the last couple of weeks with really bad losses to the 3-10 Arizona Cardinals and the 3-10 New England Patriots.
The Steelers are what they are at this point -- they're 7-6 and if the season ended today, they'd be in one of the coveted Wild Card spots in the AFC. But the season doesn't end today. It ends in four weeks. And by that point in time, will Pittsburgh still be standing?
Let's look at their next four games and try to predict how this team will do down the stretch this season.
Week 15: Pittsburgh Steelers @ Indianapolis Colts
Saturday, December 16, 4:30 PM ET
The first hurdle the Pittsburgh Steelers have to clear in their playoff push over the final four weeks of the season is the Indianapolis Colts. The Colts -- like the Steelers -- have been a tough team to figure out this season. They won't have Jonathan Taylor for this game, but the Colts have seemingly been just fine without a number of players offensively this season.
That defense has helped carry the team, and new head coach Shane Steichen has put backup QB Gardner Minshew in positions to help this team win games, even with his flaws and mistakes.
The Colts are turning the ball over at a decently high rate these days, and although their defense has come through to help them out big-time, forcing 21 turnovers this season while the offense has given it away 20 times.
Can the Steelers -- who have the fewest giveaways in the NFL (11) -- go on the road and make the Colts make more mistakes than them? I think so.
Prediction: Steelers win 20-17