At one point in mid-December, the Pittsburgh Steelers sat at 7-7 and looked like they had choked away the season thanks to three straight losses.
But then the Steelers rallied. They finished 10-7 on the season and got the help they needed, getting into the AFC playoffs as the No. 7 seed. That sets up a trip to Buffalo to take on the AFC East champion and No. 2-seeded Bills on Sunday at 1 p.m. in a Wild Card Round matchup.
Despite the 10-7 record though, which included an impressive 5-1 record in the tough AFC North — all four teams in the division finished with a record above .500, doing that for the first time in NFL history since 1935 — the Steelers are considered one of the worst teams in the playoffs, at least according to CBS Sports’ Cody Benjamin.
In a piece for CBSSports.com Monday, Benjamin ranked the Steelers as the No. 13 team in the playoffs out of 14 total, landing just ahead of the NFC South champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“Mike Tomlin has once again pulled a rabbit out of his hat, navigating staffing turmoil and quarterback injuries to keep Pittsburgh above water,” Benjamin writes regarding the Steelers in his rankings. “But as sharp as Mason Rudolph’s been off the bench, this is the only playoff team with a negative point differential, and now the defense’s best difference-maker, T.J. Watt, is banged up.
“They’ll still be scrappy as always.”
It was a rather trying season for the Steelers after entering the 2023 season with great expectations, especially offensively.
Things didn’t go as planned with second-year quarterback Kenny Pickett and former offensive coordinator Matt Canada, leading to Tomlin making a change at offensive coordinator ahead of the Week 12 matchup with the Cincinnati Bengals. That week, the Steelers defeated the Bengals to move to 7-4 on the season and looked poised to go on a run.
Then the bottom fell out as the Steelers lost three straight games, falling to 7-7 and putting the season on the brink. To the Steelers’ credit, even with the outside noise and criticism getting rather loud regarding Tomlin, they rallied and won three straight down the stretch to finish 10-7 and then got some help to get into the playoffs.
Despite the strong finish to the season and the style of play that Pittsburgh is currently playing featuring a smash-mouth run game and an explosive passing attack under Mason Rudolph, the Steelers are still an unknown in the playoffs. So it’s not all that surprising that Benjamin has the Steelers near the bottom of the rankings regarding the playoff teams.
But they are a scrappy bunch and could make some noise in the playoffs, starting with the Wild Card matchup against the Bills Sunday at 1 p.m.
