In The Hunt: Breaking down the Steelers playoff chances
BALTIMORE (KDKA) - Head Coach Mike Tomlin sums it up any time these two teams get together.
"It's Ravens week."
Steelers fans of all stripes know what that means, physical football, low-scoring, and a visceral reaction to anything in purple for about 7 days.
The Steelers and Ravens are set to write another chapter in the rivalry tonight at 8:20 on Sunday Night Football, but the stakes of the game won't be clear until just before kickoff.
While the Ravens are locked in a battle with the Cincinnati Bengals for first place in the AFC North, the Steelers are hoping for some help to keep their postseason dreams alive.
The black and gold currently sit at 7-8 and coming into week 17, are still playing meaningful football.
Now, the first and most important factor for the Steelers to get a postseason berth is simple: they have to win their next two games. They take on Baltimore tonight and then the Browns in their season finale next week at Acrisure Stadium.
From there, they will need outside help.
This week, if you're a Steelers fan, you're rooting for the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks.
The Patriots take on the Miami Dolphins in Foxboro and the Seahawks will face the New York Jets at home in the Pacific Northwest.
That's not where it ends, though. Should the Steelers, Patriots, and Seahawks all win this week, the Steelers will once again need some help in week 18.
In week 18, the Steelers, again, will need to win their matchup against the Browns. Then, they once again will need a Dolphins loss when they take on the Jets, and then they will need the Patriots to lose to the Buffalo Bills.
If all that happens, the Steelers will qualify for the NFL Playoffs.
However, despite long odds and needing help from other teams, the Steelers are focused on what they can control and that's winning football games.
"We got two games left, we're trying to win these next games, either way," running back Najee Harris said. "If we make the playoffs or not, we're not going to just sit back and tank or whatever people say, or just lose these next two games. We're not doing that. We're trying to win. No matter what happens, if we don't make the playoffs, we can go in and say that we honestly played our best games and just not try to lose. That's not us. I know that's not us in the building, nobody talks about it, it wasn't even a discussion."
This time of the NFL season, everyone is playing with some kind of ailment, but injuries could be a factor in the Steelers' push for the playoffs.
Tonight, Ravens' quarterback Lamar Jackson will once again be sidelined due to an ongoing battle with a knee injury.
As for some of the games Steelers fans will be watching, the Dolphins will also be without their starting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa who once again is in concussion protocol and backup Teddy Bridgewater will start.
While Steelers fans are always dreaming of Lombardi Trophies, it's actually quite impressive how successful they have been since we entered the 2000s.
In that time, the Steelers have played 351 games and of those games, just four of them were played with the Steelers being eliminated from playoff contention: two in 2003, a game in 2006, and a game in 2012. 256 of those games have been played under Head Coach Mike Tomlin and as you can see, just one of those games happened under his tutilage.
With so much needing to happen and so many scenarios playing out, quarterback Kenny Pickett summed it up simply.
"We've just got to take it one week at a time."
