The Pittsburgh Steelers won’t have much time to watch the Cleveland Browns visit the Baltimore Ravens, as they will be playing right after. The NFL in its infinite wisdom decided to stack the games back-to-back on a Saturday, as one does. But one thing is sure, as Pat Freiermuth says: the Steelers are Browns fans this week.
As you likely already know, the Steelers need the Ravens to lose in order to win the AFC North. And the Steelers need to win, of course. But right now the Ravens have a one-game advantage over them at 11-5 versus 10-6.
“We want to get back on that winning track”, Freiermuth said on Chalk Talk with Gerry Dulac on 102.5 WDVE last night. “We have a great opportunity in front of us to get to 11-6, and, hopefully — big Browns fan this week. Never thought I’d say that. But hopefully some magic can happen in the first game, and we can win the division in our game”.
While the Steelers have already earned a postseason berth, they would certainly love to host a playoff game. Weeks ago, Freiermuth talked about the excitement of his first shot at a “hat-and-T-shirt game”. That was their last game against the Ravens, which if they’d won would have won them the AFC North.
But because they failed to do so, and because they lost the two surrounding games, the Steelers must now cross their fingers and hope the Browns can do the unimaginable. Of course, the Browns already beat the Ravens once this year—and they beat the Steelers, too. But the Ravens are a better team now, and the Browns are even worse.
This is actually not the first time the Steelers have had to pull for the Browns to beat the Ravens. Back in 2018, in the rookie seasons of Lamar Jackson and Baker Mayfield, the Steelers needed a Ravens loss to win the AFC North, and to make the playoffs at all. They didn’t quite get it, the Browns falling, 26-24.
That was a few years before Pat Freiermuth was even in the NFL. The Steelers’ last game ending with hats and T-shirts was in 2020, the year before his draft class. While they may have the paraphernalia on-hand just in case, we’ll know by kickoff whether or not they can be shipped to some third-world countries for humanitarian aid distribution.
Unfortunately for the Steelers, the Ravens have a lot to play for. The Browns have a lot to play for, too, only their motivation is the opposite—they want to lose. You won’t hear them say it, but obviously their most advantageous course of action is to improve their draft stock. The last time the Steelers needed the Browns to win, Cleveland actually tried. Will they even put up a fight this time? it may very well take magic for that to happen.
