The Pittsburgh Steelers stand at 5-3 at just about the midpoint of the NFL season. This has them in the top Wild-Card position in the AFC, but only a half-game ahead of the Buffalo Bills, who are 5-4 and on the outside of the playoff race in eighth place.
Luckily for the Steelers, the back half of the schedule stays light. Warren Sharp had the Steelers schedule ranked the 7th easiest in football going into the season, and Dalton Miller of Pro Football Network has them in the same spot for the remaining opponents.
Let’s take a look at the Steelers’ nine remaining games. Despite the opponents not being a gauntlet, only four of the nine games will be played at Acrisure Stadium. Those three games are this week against the Packers and two other games in which the Steelers should also be favorites, Week 13 against the Arizona Cardinals and Week 14 against the New England Patriots. The combined record of these three teams is 6-20, though the Cardinals should have QB Kyler Murray back in a bit of a groove by that point, and you can never count out any team coached by Bill Belichick. The fourth and final home game is in Week 16 against the Cincinnati Bengals, who have bounced back in a big way after a slow start to the season.
On the road, the schedule looks tougher. Pittsburgh has yet to play any AFC North team away from home. With the AFC North as bunched up as it is, these games could be huge for playoff positioning and potential tiebreaker scenarios. The other two road games for the Steelers are against the 3-5 Indianapolis Colts in Week 15, and the 5-3 Seattle Seahawks in Week 17. Both should be good battles.
What perhaps is best about the Steelers’ schedule down the stretch is that there aren’t any games that you feel like you can chalk up as losses already. We know they can hang with everybody in the AFC North and none of their other opponents scare you all that much.
The game in Baltimore against the Ravens in Week 18 looms as the potential biggest one of the season. The Ravens lead the AFC North at 7-2, while the rest of the division teams sit at 5-3. However, the Steelers have the tiebreaker over the Ravens via their head-to-head victory, and it is perhaps worth noting that the Ravens have the second toughest schedule remaining this season.
The door is open still for the Steelers to win the North.
