In case you haven’t figured it out by now, the Pittsburgh Steelers are now officially eliminated from the divisional race. The Baltimore Ravens’ 11th win of the season last night guaranteed that they cannot finish the season with more than six losses, and the Steelers already have seven, guaranteeing that Baltimore will place better.
The best the Steelers can do is finish in second place, currently at 7-7. But they sit behind the 9-5 Cleveland Browns and the 8-6 Cincinnati Bengals, both of whom have been operating with backup quarterbacks. Cleveland is 2-1 with Joe Flacco and Cincinnati is now 3-1 with Jake Browning.
Meanwhile, the Steelers are 0-2 with Mitch Trubisky, and that might be all he gets. Head coach Mike Tomlin pulled him prior to the end of the last game, so it could be Mason Rudolph who gets the nods Saturday against the Bengals if Kenny Pickett is unable to return.
If things continue as they are, which is extremely likely should they drop their next game against the Bengals, the Steelers would be on pace to finish fourth—that is, last—in the AFC North. That would be the first time in history, with the caveat that the AFC North has only existed since 2002. They are the only team in the division, however, that has not finished last before.
The Steelers have not placed last in their division since 1989 in a four-team AFC Central, a horrible team that year at 5-11 when everybody else—including the Houston Oilers—finished with 10-plus wins. The Bengals won the division and the Browns and Oilers advanced as wild cards. The Steelers went 1-5 in the division that year.
This marks the third consecutive season in which the Steelers failed to win the division, however, having last done so during the surprising 12-4 2020 season. They somehow opened that year with a franchise-record 11 consecutive victories before plummeting back to earth in the final month.
The last time the Steelers had gone three seasons without winning the division was following their Super Bowl run of 2010, failing to top the AFC North between 2011-2013 before reclaiming the title in 2014, and then again in 2016, 2017, and 2020. They also secured titles in 2010, 2008, and 2007, thus marking only the second stretch of head coach Mike Tomlin’s career in which he failed to claim a division title in a three-year span.
Of course, he is also becoming perilously close to securing an absence from the postseason altogether, for the second consecutive season. He has never gone more than two seasons without making the postseason, so 2024 will be telling to see if he doesn’t extend two streaks beyond his prior limits.
In case you’re wondering, the last time the Steelers went more than three seasons without winning a division title was at the end of Chuck Noll’s career. He went seven straight years without winning the AFC Central before Bill Cowher took over and won it in four of his first five seasons. That was followed by his first and only stretch of three years without a division title, and also his only three-year stretch without a postseason appearance.
