The Pittsburgh Steelers are somehow still in the playoff hunt after losing two games in the same week. Indeed, there is now a pileup of mediocrity right in the heart of the AFC. They are now one of just six teams vying for Wild Card positioning as all share a 7-6 record.
Some more than others still have it within their grasp to make a run at a division title. The Houston Texans and the Indianapolis Colts, for example, are now just a game behind the 8-5 Jacksonville Jaguars. The Kansas City Chiefs, after dropping another game, are 8-5 and have just a single-game lead over the Denver Broncos.
The Steelers and the Buffalo Bills, on the other hand, would need a lot more help, as they play in the two divisions in which a three-loss team is still alive. The Miami Dolphins play the Tennessee Titans tonight to try to join the Baltimore Ravens with 10 wins.
But it really says something about the state of the conference in which there is such a pileup of 7-6 teams. And the Cleveland Browns at 8-5 are really right in that mix as well. One might want to put the Jaguars there the way things are heading.
The reality is there is a profound mediocrity going around right now. Arguably the only teams that could claim to be better than that in the conference are the Ravens and the Dolphins, with an argument to be made potentially for a Chiefs team that is repeatedly finding ways to lose. But they still have Patrick Mahomes.
In the NFC, there are currently only five teams with a winning record, though another six teams with a .500 record or within one game of it. It’s certainly not a revelation to point out that the middle of a group is full of mediocrity.
It serves only to acknowledge the company the Steelers are keeping and what that says about who they are, where they are, and their prospects. It doesn’t help matters that they appear to have the greatest flaw of the group, however, which is the quarterback position, even in comparison to teams running with backups on a permanent basis.
Pittsburgh is also dealing with a backup quarterback situation with Mitch Trubisky filling in while Kenny Pickett recovers from an ankle injury, but he is expected to return before the end of the season. It was the popular view that there was a lesser drop-off for them from starter to backup than just about anywhere else.
Yet in comparison to how some of the backups have played, including the Bengals’ Jake Browning, now Joe Flacco in Cleveland, and even a resurrected Zach Wilson with the New York Jets, it’s quite hard to come up with excuses for the Steelers’ free fall. They simply should be better than this, but the stark reality is that they are thoroughly mediocre, and in some areas much worse.
