Regardless of the circumstances the Pittsburgh Steelers are in, the job never changes: the goal, as always, is to win. The Steelers still have plenty to play for in the season finale, in fact. The only difference is they need help, whereas if they’d won one of their last three, they wouldn’t. For Miles Killebrew, it doesn’t change the importance of beating the Bengals.
“You’ve still got to win”, he told Joe Rutter of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review of the Steelers’ focus this week. If they win and Baltimore loses, they would win the AFC North. “We had to win when we were ahead of [the Ravens]. Got to win now that we’re not”.
The Steelers had a chance to lock up the AFC North two games ago. All they had to do was beat the Ravens in Baltimore, which proved easier said than done. Even failing that, however, they still controlled the division at that point.
Entering their Christmas Day game against the Kansas City Chiefs, the Steelers still owned a win-out division-clinching scenario. Had they beaten the Chiefs and then the Bengals in the finale, there is nothing the Ravens could have done. Because the Steelers lost to the Chiefs, they still have to beat the Bengals, but they also need the Ravens to lose to the Browns.
The Steelers are not unfamiliar with needing help to achieve an important postseason seeding, or a playoff spot, period. In fact, that seems to be the case more often than not. A few games ago, they were still in the running for the AFC’s No. 1 seed, as improbable as that now sounds. Now, they best they can do is the No. 3 seed, the worst being the No. 7 seed.
But beating the Bengals is really about more than playoff scenarios. The Steelers are already guaranteed a playoff game, and while it would be great to play it at home, they still need to make sure they are the best team they can be for wherever and whenever they play.
Whether as division champions or not, the Steelers need to show in a win over the Bengals that they are a team that can contend in the playoffs. They beat this team earlier this year in Cincinnati, and at least they are at home for this one. This needs to be a get-right game. Because if they can’t get it right now, then they’re going to get their butts kicked to the curb.
That is, unfortunately, another scenario with which the Steelers have familiar intimacy. Since 2020, they have lost in the Wild Card Round three times already. Going back to 2016, they have lost five consecutive postseason games, among the longest active streaks in the NFL.
