Curtain hangs slightly open
Steelers end regular season with fate out of their own hands — again
Win or lose, when the Steelers hop on the team plane Saturday night to leave Baltimore, they’ll remain up in the air a lot longer than an hour and change.
There is one funny scenario that could wrap up a playoff spot for them by the end of the day if they beat the Ravens. The Colts and Texans will kick off shortly after their game ends, and if those two teams horse around to the tune of a tie, the Steelers are in.
“That’s hilarious,” Steelers special teams captain Miles Killebrew laughed. “If they tie? ... I did not know that one.”
Far more realistic is that the Steelers won’t know their postseason fate until late Sunday. It might even be nearing midnight before they learn whether they’ll spend their week practicing for another opponent or making travel plans to begin the offseason.
Such is life when you sputter down the stretch of the NFL season and don’t control your own path to the playoffs. And that’s been a common occurrence for this franchise in recent years, including the final day of the 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022 regular seasons, which could produce a familiar feeling. Or ...
“No feeling,” shrugged defensive captain T.J. Watt, who’s been here since 2017. “Obviously, you’d like to get in on our own without needing help, but at the same time I’m not going to feel sorry for ourselves being in this position. We just need to take care of our business. We’ve been in this position before, and if we don’t take care of our business, none of it matters anyway.”
The simple solution for the Steelers is this: Win in Baltimore, fly home, then kick back Sunday and hope the Jaguars lose at Tennessee or the Bills lose at Miami. That’s it.
Both Jacksonville and Buffalo are favored by 3 to 5 points, depending on what oddsmaker you look at, perhaps because they do have their seasons on the line. But they’re on the road, and the Titans could be as feisty under fiery coach Mike Vrabel as the Dolphins are hungry to win the AFC East and secure a home playoff game in the first round (while likely avoiding a trip to Kansas City).
“I thought we were screwed because the Colts won, Texans won, everybody won [last week],” Steelers left tackle Dan Moore Jr. said. “I thought we pretty much had no chance. But yeah, man, things actually look pretty damn good right now.”
Moore added that it does remind him of his rookie year in 2021, but first, let’s start with a refresher of last season’s similar circumstance. Last January, the Steelers needed to hold serve at home against the Browns and root for the Bills beating the Patriots plus the Jets upsetting the Dolphins. Buffalo did its part, but the Jets couldn’t quite pull it off against a Miami team that was fighting for its own playoff berth, and the Steelers bittersweetly entered the offseason with no spot in the dance but a warm-and-fuzzy feeling about their quarterback and 7-2 finish.
Two years ago, their parlay hit, but not without some drama. In a deja vu sort of situation, they ended the regular season at Baltimore needing a victory to stay alive. Ben Roethlisberger would either ride off into the sunset or get one last rodeo. The Steelers won in overtime as the Jaguars — who were just 2-14, on an eight-game losing streak and 14-point underdogs — shocked the 9-7 Colts and ruined their own playoff hopes.
In 2019 it was the Steelers who were skidding, having lost two in a row to the Bills and Jets, but still headed to Baltimore with a chance to sneak into the tournament. They just had to find a way to get past the Ravens backups -- hey, wait a second -- and have the Titans lose at Houston. Both games kicked off at 4:25, and neither result fell in favor of the Steelers, who were routed 28-10 by a Robert Griffin III-led offense that had already clinched the No. 1 seed in the AFC. Devlin “Duck” Hodges threw for just 95 yards, and even punter Jordan Berry was pummeled on a fumbled snap that led to a special teams touchdown in a torrential downpour at M&T Bank Stadium.
“The whole talk that week was, ‘Let’s knock them out of the playoffs.’ I know that’s what they’re saying over there in that building,” said then-Ravens rookie Miles Boykin, now in his second year as a Steelers wide receiver. “It’s gonna be a fun game to play in.”
Then there was the most literal example of scoreboard watching back in 2018, which fittingly started this trend. Minutes after their 16-13 comeback win against the Bengals at home, the in-stadium screen flipped over to the conclusion of Ravens-Browns. Still in uniform, many Steelers players joined fans in the stands watching Baker Mayfield’s rally and final drive fall short when he threw an interception down 26-24 with a little more than a minute left. That kept the Steelers at home for January with a 9-6-1 record, the first time they’d missed the playoffs in five years.
“I was in the locker room ,” grumbleddefensive captain Cam Hey ward, the longest-tenure d Steeler. “I didn’t even wanna watch that crap.”
This time around, the road isn’t as narrow. As much as players might not want to hear it, the Steelers could even still squeak into the playoffs with a loss, as long as the Jaguars also go down and the Broncos in at the Raiders.
Oh, and that Colts-Texans tie that could be their Saturday night ticket? That actually would eliminate the Steelers if they lose. Hopefully you’ve got all that committed to memory.
“It’s not one of those kumbaya things where you throw a party to see who gets in,” Heyward said of monitoring their playoff destiny Sunday. “It’s more just wait and see what happens.”
Heyward and the Steelers know all about that.