As an NFL player in early to mid January, you don’t want to be booking a vacation to a place like Cancún. That, of course, means that your team either didn’t make the playoffs or made an early exit. The Pittsburgh Steelers are at risk of that being the case. They are backing their way into the playoffs with a tough road matchup against the Baltimore Ravens.
One former NFL scout believes the Steelers might as well book that Cancún vacation now, because they’re going to get blown out by the Ravens in the Wild Card round.
“You got no shot in any of these big games against any of these good teams. You literally lose them all. Jalen Hurts, Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson again. I mean, 1, 2, 3 Cancún,” John Middlekauf said via his 3 and Out podcast on YouTube. “I think, more than likely—assuming the Chargers win—game one, I would expect them to win that game by 20-plus points. I know, ‘The rivalry, they know each other’.
“I think they beat the shit out of them.”
That would be the most disastrous ending to a worst-case scenario that has played out over the last month for the Steelers. Just a month ago, they were 10-3 and still had a chance at the AFC’s 1-seed. Once that fell out of contention, they still had a very strong chance at winning the AFC North to host a playoff game. The Ravens secured the division with a win in Week 18, but the Steelers still had a chance to beat the Bengals and play the struggling Houston Texans.
They lost and will now play the red-hot Ravens.
The season went from great to awful in just a month’s time.
The Steelers are the third team to ever enter the playoffs on a four-game losing streak. The 1999 Detroit Lions were one-and-done. The 1986 New York Jets won in the Wild Card round before losing in the Divisional round.
The Steelers have won eight of the last 10 games against the Ravens with one of those losses on the road and one at home. The issue is, their most recent game was a 34-17 blowout on the road in Baltimore. It was Lamar Jackson’s first time ever playing the Steelers in front of a home crowd, so that 8-2 record requires some context like injuries and resting players.
On the plus side for the Steelers, WR Zay Flowers might have to miss this game with a knee sprain. He has been a big part of the offense, but he is far from the only thing that is working. The Ravens are a historically great offense led by a potential three-time MVP quarterback. Their defense has also improved since some early-season struggles.
A 20-plus point loss in the playoffs might just be the impetus for some serious changes in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ organization.
