The Pittsburgh Steelers beating the Seattle Seahawks this weekend is the most important game to keeping their playoff hopes alive. Right behind that is the Jacksonville Jaguars losing to the Carolina Panthers.
Needing the Jags to lose one of their final two games, their odds of victory even against a 2-13 Panthers club took a hit today. Starting QB Trevor Lawrence is out for Sunday’s game against Carolina due to a shoulder injury he simply couldn’t push through during the week of practice. Instead, C.J. Beathard will be the starter.
Lawrence suffered the injury while scrambling with the football in last week’s loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, pushed out of bounds and landing hard on his shoulder. After briefly trying to stay in the game, the team took him out. Despite early-week optimism that he would practice, Lawrence sat out this week. It will be the first game Lawrence has missed due to injury in his career be it high school, college, or the NFL (he did miss one game in college due to COVID).
Jacksonville is in the middle of a four-game losing streak, going from No. 1-seed contender to trying to avoid total collapse and miss out on the playoffs entirely. They were blown out 30-12 by Tampa Bay in Week 16.
Carolina is one of the worst teams in football but has been playing better down the stretch, winning two weeks ago and then losing 33-30 last week to the Green Bay Packers as rookie QB Bryce Young played one of the best games of his career.
Pittsburgh’s easiest path to the postseason involves winning its final two games against Seattle and Baltimore, the Indianapolis Colts or Houston Texans failing to reach 10 wins (both teams are 8-7 and play each other in Week 18, meaning they both can’t reach that mark, checking that box) and the Jaguars losing either in Week 17 to the Panthers or Week 18 to the Tennessee Titans. Other scenarios for Pittsburgh exist but this is the most likely and realistic, especially knowing Lawrence is out this weekend.
With a 1 PM/EST kickoff in Jacksonville, the Steelers will know the result of the Jags-Panthers game before getting things going in Seattle at 4:05 PM/EST.
