From a 4-1 start to a 6-4 record, fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers have been on a roller-coaster ride this season. With it looking unlikely that they find a way into the third seed, the best-case scenario for the Steelers seems to be winning the division and hosting the top AFC Wild Card team in the first round.
However, that could work out just fine according to former Steeler Bryant McFadden, who does believe the Steelers are a contender.
“They’re a contender. I think the AFC has a lot of uncertainty within the entire conference, which actually helps this debate with the Steelers being a contender. Because who is really, really good?” McFadden asked Friday on 93.7 The Fan. “Buffalo is not the Buffalo Bills that we thought it would be. We’ve seen what’s going on with the Baltimore Ravens, even though they’re in the midst of this winning streak… I think the Steelers are definitely a contender.”
If the Steelers don’t win the AFC North, they could get into a Wild Card slot. They have the same number of losses as Buffalo and Los Angeles, which each have one extra win via an extra game played to this point. Thus, if the Steelers beat the Bears Sunday, they’ll be tied for the fifth and sixth seeds.
The problem is, the Chargers have the tiebreaker over the Steelers with their win in Week 10. And with the Bills and Steelers set to play in Week 13, that game would decide the tiebreaker between those two. Pittsburgh is currently tied with Jacksonville at 6-4, which holds the final Wild Card spot. Then, there’s 6-5 Houston as the first team out of the playoffs.
However, sneaking into a Wild Card spot still means the Steelers would have to face one of Indianapolis, Denver, New England or Baltimore on the road. To their credit, the Steelers have beat two of those teams already. Still, we’ve seen how the story goes when they have to travel to face a top seed in the AFC.
It’s led to a six-game losing streak in the playoffs. It’s a streak that the Steelers really need to win the division and ensure a home playoff game to end. They have a one-game edge over Baltimore currently, but with two matchups against the Ravens remaining, that could change. The Ravens’ schedule is also a bit easier from here on out.
In the next few weeks, a lot of this will change. The Steelers have those two games against the Ravens, and the Bills next week. Each of those three matchups will shake up the AFC’s playoff picture up quite a bit. McFadden thinks the Steelers are ready for that challenge, but they’ll have to prove it over the next couple of months.
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