With the Steelers having wrapped up their 20th consecutive, and 17th under head coach Mike Tomlin, non-losing season, the next task at hand is to secure a spot in the playoffs.
In their 20-year stretch of not having a losing season, the Steelers have qualified for the postseason 12 times, with a 13th pending this season.
To make that happen this year, the Steelers will need a little help. But that's not all that unusual. In fact, there have been seven other times under head coach Mike Tomlin where the Steelers have needed help entering the final week of the season to get into the playoffs. On two of those occasions, the Steelers have gotten what they needed to happen to fall correctly to get into the postseason, most recently in 2022.
Last season, the Steelers needed to beat the Browns in Week 18, which they accomplished, 28-14.
But they also needed losses from the Patriots and Dolphins against the Bills and Jets, respectively. The Bills did what they needed to do, topping New England, 35-23. But the Jets couldn't knock off the Dolphins, losing 11-6 and leaving the Steelers on the outside looking in at the postseason.
There also have been recent instances when things worked out. And that can happen in crazy fashion, as it did in 2021.
That season, the Steelers not only needed to beat the Ravens in the regular season finale, which they did in overtime, 16-13, they needed the hapless Jaguars to beat the Colts. That happened, with Jacksonville whipping Indianapolis, 26-11, setting up a crazy Sunday night game between the Raiders and Chargers.
If the game ended in a tie, the Chargers and Raiders would both be in, while the Steelers would miss the postseason despite their 9-7-1 record.
The Raiders drove to their own 46 with two minutes remaining in overtime when running back Josh Jacobs picked up seven yards on a run with 38 seconds remaining. The Chargers called timeout.
With the Chargers not content to take the tie, the Raiders picked up 10 yards on another Jacobs run on the next play, called timeout and then kicked the game-winning field goal to clinch a playoff spot and put the Steelers in the postseason, as well.
The Steelers also got what they needed to occur in 2015, as well.
With the Steelers finishing up their season in Cleveland, they needed a victory along with a win by the Bills over the 10-5 Jets. New York was a three-point favorite on the road.
The Steelers thumped the Browns, 28-12, to improve their record to 10-6, while the Bills intercepted Ryan Fitzpatrick three times and beat the Jets, 22-17, denying Fitzpatrick his best opportunity to reach the postseason in his 17-year NFL career.
Of course, like what occurred in 2022, things don't always work out well.
In 2019, the Steelers, who played all but two games that season without quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, were 8-5 before losing their next two games to the Bills and Jets. Still, they entered the final week of the season needing a win and a loss or tie by the Titans at Houston. Not only did the Steelers lose to the Ravens, 28-10, the Titans also won, beating the Texans, 35-14.
In 2018, the Steelers faced an even crazier scenario. At 8-6-1, the Steelers hosted the Bengals needing a win or tie coupled with a loss or tie by the Ravens to win the AFC North. They also could get into the playoffs as a Wild Card with a win or a tie by the Colts and Titans.
The Steelers got their victory, 16-13. But the Ravens edged the Browns, 26-24, in a game that ended several minutes later as fans at Acrisure Stadium and a number of players watched on the stadium jumbotron.
The Colts also beat the Titans, 33-17, leaving the Steelers out of the postseason.
In 2013, the Steelers again needed to beat the Browns and have the Chargers lose to the Chiefs in Kansas City.
The Chargers were 14 ½-point favorites in the game with the Chiefs, who had already wrapped up the AFC West, resting a number of starters.
But the Chiefs took a 24-14 lead into the fourth quarter, only to see the Chargers tie the game with 3:24 remaining. Backup quarterback Chase Daniel got the Chiefs into position to win the game with 8 seconds left in regulation, but Ryan Succop's 41-yard field goal was no good, and the Chargers won the game in overtime, 27-24.
In 2009, the Steelers began the season 6-2, only to lose their next five games to fall to 6-7. They won their next two games, at Green Bay and at home against the Ravens, to give themselves a chance going into the regular season finale at Miami.
But they needed a lot of help. Not only did the Steelers need to beat the Dolphins, they had to have the Texans and Jets lose; the Jets and Ravens lose; or the Texans, Jets and Broncos lose.
The Steelers took care of their end of the deal, beating the Dolphins, 30-24. But the Ravens, Texans and Jets all won, ending the Steelers' season at 9-7.
The Steelers, and more importantly, Tomlin, have been through this before. That's why they won't worry about anything else except for taking care of their part of the bargain on Saturday. It's the only thing they can control.
That all of the games that matter will be played separately after the Steelers have faced the Ravens will only help matters.
• Maybe this time around, they're due to get the breaks they need.
It's not quite as crazy as some of the aforementioned scenarios.
In fact, if they win in Baltimore on Saturday, they'll need one of two teams – Buffalo or Jacksonville – to lose a road game.
The Bills are 3-4 on the road this season, while the Jaguars, who have lost four of their past five games, are 5-2. The teams they play, Miami and Tennessee, respectively, are 7-1 and 4-4 at home.
Only nine teams in the league have a losing record at home this season.
Overall, home teams are 142-109 this season, a winning percentage of .566. The crazy thing about that, is that, through five weeks this season, road teams had a better winning percentage. That obviously flipped the rest of the way.
It's also more of a return to normal. From 2019 through 2021 home teams saw their winning percentages fall to .520, .498 and .511, respectively,
Some of that was because of COVID, as many teams had no fans in their stadium to create any kind of atmosphere in 2020, when home teams had a losing record for the season.
Prior to that, you have to go all the way back to 1968 to find a season in which home teams lost more games than they won. And that season and 2020 are the only ones in NFL history in which home teams didn't win more than 50 percent of their games.
So, even though the Dolphins and Titans are underdogs in their games against the Bills and Jaguars, the odds say that there's a good chance one of them loses.
• Joey Porter Jr. took home the Joe Greene Great Performance Award earlier this week. The award, which is given to the Steelers' rookie of the year, had plenty of competition this season. It just as easily could have gone to offensive tackle Broderick Jones, the team's first-round draft pick or defensive tackle Keeanu Benton, taken in the second round behind Porter.
Heck, considering the award, which is voted on by the Pittsburgh Chapter of the Pro Football Writers of America, has gone to punters and special teams players in the past because there weren't any rookies playing enough snaps to be considered, the contributions of tight end Darnell Washington and linebacker Nick Herbig would have been enough to win in some previous years.
In other words, the Steelers have gotten plenty of good contributions from their 2023 rookie class.
Given what he's done this season – and how some other rookies have fallen off – Porter should be in strong consideration for NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year.
Considering Porter has allowed just 24 completions on 51 pass attempts in his coverage – a 47.1 percent completion percentage – and he's done so while covering the opposing team's best receiver each week, he has been excellent. Opposing quarterbacks have a passer rating of just 68.4 when targeting Porter's coverage.
The Steelers slow-played things with Porter early in the season instead of simply thrusting him into the lineup. And it's paid off.
"I think he's done well. The good thing is he's done well, but he's got so much room for improvement," said defensive coordinator Teryl Austin. "He could be so much of a better player. He's got a lot of things that obviously we want him to continue to improve this year, but as we work into the off-season, he's got a lot of room to jump and improve, and you've got to push him that way. So it's been good. We were deliberate, and I think it worked out well for him."
• Since the start of the 2020 season, just two teams who have played the Ravens more than twice have a winning record against Baltimore. One is the Dolphins, who are 2-1 against Baltimore despite losing to the Ravens last weekend.
The second is the Steelers, who are 6-1 against the Ravens over that period.
And it hasn't mattered who has started at quarterbacks for Baltimore in those games. Lamar Jackson is 1-3 in four career starts against the Steelers, including a 17-10 loss earlier this season. He's also lost his last three starts against the Steelers after edging them, 26-23, in overtime in his first career start against them in 2019.
That game saw Mason Rudolph knocked out of the game from a helmet-to-helmet blow by safety Earl Thomas. But for this exercise, that win by Jackson doesn't even count.
Jackson is winless against the Steelers since 2020, throwing four touchdowns and four interceptions in those games while getting sacked 15 times in those three games.
Tyler Huntley, who will start Saturday's game against the Steelers with the Ravens sitting Jackson and others to have them ready for the postseason, has started three games against the Steelers, going 1-2 in those games with one touchdown pass and three interceptions.
•Dale Lolley is co-host of "SNR Drive" on Steelers Nation Radio. Subscribe to the podcast here: Apple Podcast | iHeart Podcast
Robert Griffin III started the other game against the Steelers, throwing an interception and getting sacked three times before giving way to current Steelers practice squad member Trace McSorley.
So when the Steelers talked this week about simply defending the Ravens offense and not worrying about whether or not Jackson played, they were speaking from experience.
And the Steelers do that by treating Jackson with "respect," as T.J. Watt referred to it this week.
"Respect" in this case means hitting the quarterback every chance they get.
If the Ravens are going to use their quarterbacks on designed runs – or even scramble off passing plays – the Steelers always make sure they hit the quarterback. And they do it early and often.
Given their success against Baltimore, it's surprising more teams don't employ that tactic.
• That Minkah Fitzpatrick and Watt were voted to the Pro Bowl again this season wasn't all that surprising. They're two of the best players in the league, regardless of position.
But it was nice to see Steelers special teams captain Miles Killebrew make it this season, as well.
Killebrew has been one of the best special teams players in the NFL for the past few seasons. And he works extremely hard at his craft
It's good to see hard work pay off for a player.
