Is the Steelers’ two-game cushion over the Ravens enough to sustain them to a division title?
The Ravens are finally heading into their bye week, the Steelers long past theirs. Falling to the Philadelphia Eagles, Baltimore will be idle when Pittsburgh faces Cleveland again. The Steelers let the last game against the Browns go—the Ravens did the same. It’s a surprisingly pivotal contest in the race for the AFC North.
While the Browns and Bengals are effectively eliminated at this point, the Ravens and Steelers are very much still battling. The Steelers won the first matchup against the two, but the Ravens can equalize in a few weeks.
So the question of the day is this: will the Steelers’ two-game advantage in the loss column sustain them through to a division title over the Ravens? That lead is more precarious than you might think from initial appearances.
For one thing, the Ravens can easily make up a game head-to-head, this time in Baltimore. And that is on a short week after the Steelers play the Eagles in Philadelphia. The Ravens have their bye week and then they play the Giants.
So assuming the Ravens beat the Giants, the Steelers only need lose one of two games to the Browns and Eagles to be playing for the same record the next time they face each other. It would be much, much better if that loss is to the Eagles than to the Browns, but I’ll discuss that separately.
If the Steelers and Ravens both end up 10-5 with two games left to play, the schedule clearly favors the Ravens. They finish the season away against the Texans and at home against the Browns. The Steelers too wrap up at home, but against the Chiefs and Bengals. And we saw how effective that Bengals offense can be against the Steelers’ defense. As long as Joe Burrow doesn’t turn the ball over three times again, they can easily win.
So I ask again: is the Steelers’ two-game advantage over the Ravens in the loss column enough? Will they need to beat the Ravens again in order to secure the division title? You can take comfort in the Steelers’ head-to-head record in recent years, but the Ravens only need to win once. And then they could be squaring off again in the playoffs.
The Steelers’ 2024 season is underway, following another disappointing year ending in a first-round playoff loss. They have had a long offseason since the Buffalo Bills stamped them out of their misery back in January. There are positive signs, but things could jump off the rails any moment.
The biggest question hanging over the team is the quarterback question. Is Russell Wilson earning a lucrative new deal next year, and is Justin Fields still in consideration? How will the team continue to address the depth chart, which is surprisingly still in flux?
The regular season is here, following weeks of camp and preseason games. The Steelers made numerous moves through signings and trade—and release. More than usual, they seemed comfortable creating holes, confident they can fill them. Some they managed to fill, others not so much. Now that we have so many pieces of the puzzle, however, we merely have a new set of questions to ask.
