Thanks to a 7-2 start, including a current stretch of four straight wins, the Pittsburgh Steelers are looking more and more like legitimate Super Bowl contenders.
That is especially true coming off their Week 10 road win over the Washington Commanders. The Steelers hit the road to take on one of the hottest teams in football and orchestrated a fourth-quarter comeback to pick up a huge win on the road.
Things will really ramp up this week ahead of their matchup with the Baltimore Ravens, which not only marks the Steelers’ first AFC North game of the season, but is a huge showdown overall as the Ravens are arguably the best team in football.
Ahead of Week 11, the Steelers are on the outside looking in when it comes to ESPN’s analytics regarding the playoff picture.
In a piece from ESPN’s Seth Walder that placed teams into tiers based on the Football Power Index, performance metrics and more, the Steelers landed in Tier 2 as a “playoff lock” but on the outside looking in on the true Super Bowl contenders.
In that true Super Bowl contenders tier, the Kansas City Chiefs, Baltimore Ravens, Buffalo Bills and Detroit Lions were featured. The Steelers found themselves as the third and final team listed in the “playoff locks” tier from Walder, joining the Houston Texans and Philadelphia Eagles.
“Relying on defense is the tougher path to victories, but that’s what Pittsburgh has done thus far in 2024 — and it has worked. It helps when you have arguably the best defensive line in the game,” Walder writes, according to ESPN.com. “Quarterback Russell Wilson has been good enough (60.8 QBR), which has to be in the recipe for success going forward.
“While I remain skeptical newly acquired Mike Williams can make a big impact, he did catch a game-winning touchdown against the Commanders on Sunday.”
In today’s NFL, relying on defense is a harder way to win, without a doubt, especially with the rules seemingly catering to more and more offense. But the Steelers have had some success in recent years leaning on their defense. Now, that defense has an offense on the other side to help pick up the slack.
That’s due to the insertion of Russell Wilson into the lineup at QB. Since Wilson stepped into the mix, the Steelers are scoring 30+ points per game, which is rather remarkable. He’s helped unlock the Steelers’ downfield passing attack and has helped lead wide receiver George Pickens to new heights.
Based on ESPN’s analytics, the Steelers have a 94% chance of making the playoffs, a 36.3% chance of winning the AFC North, and an 8.2% chance of making the Super Bowl. Those are pretty solid odds at the midway point of the season.
For comparison, the Ravens have a 63.1% chance of winning the AFC North and a 22% chance of making the Super Bowl. The Steelers aren’t that far off and have a chance to improve those percentages in the head-to-head matchup against the Ravens.
The schedule is quite difficult in the second half of the season, but right now the Steelers are a borderline legitimate contender who belong in the discussion with the Ravens, Chiefs, Bills and Texans in the AFC. Things look very promising moving forward for the Black and Gold.
