Any hopes that the Pittsburgh Steelers had of winning the AFC North vanished into the Black Hole Sunday in their 21-18 loss to the Oakland Raiders.
The Steelers loss dropped them to 2-5 on the season and thanks to the Cincinnati Bengals blowing out the New York Jets, Pittsburgh now sits four wins behind in the AFC North win column with just nine games left to play in the season.
So with the division now out of the picture, the only thing the Steelers can hope for is a Wild Card spot. Baring a monumental collapse, either the Denver Broncos or the Kansas City Chiefs will lock up one of the two Wild Card spots, so that leaves the Steelers battling for the remaining one.
In order to get that lone remaining spot, however, the Steelers will at worst need to go 7-2 to close out the season and possibly get some help. The way they played Sunday against the Raiders, even that looks like a pipe dream.
