The Pittsburgh Steelers pulled out all the stops on Thursday Night Football. They wore their color rush uniforms, painted the end zone gold, and even brought in “Renegade” hitmaker Styx to perform the national anthem. Despite all the effort there, the Steelers fell flat and lost 21-18 to the 2-10 New England Patriots. Just a handful of days ago, the Steelers were 7-4 and in a great position with their remaining schedule to compete for a wild-card spot, if not the AFC North title. Now they are all but out of the running for the AFC North, being 2.5 games back from the Baltimore Ravens with just four games remaining.
At 7-6, and before any of the other Week 14 games are played this weekend, the Steelers are now the eighth seed in the AFC playoff picture.
They could find themselves back in the playoffs with the fifth, sixth, or seventh seed following this weekend depending on the outcome of the games featuring the other seven-win teams. The Steelers have a 5-4 record in the conference, and a division record tiebreaker against the Cleveland Browns. The Houston Texans have the head-to-head tiebreaker on the Steelers. The Indianapolis Colts and the Steelers will play next week, which will be highly important in the playoff picture down the stretch with tiebreakers. Regardless, the Steelers have very little margin of error the rest of the way this season.
Moving forward, the Steelers will only face teams that are in the hunt for the playoffs. The Colts, Cincinnati Bengals, Seattle Seahawks, and Ravens all have plenty to play for down the stretch. The last two games the Steelers played were supposed to help provide a cushion for the late-season push, but they are now in a toss-up at best with their playoff chances.
