The Steelers picked up a crucial 18-16 victory against their AFC North rival Baltimore Ravens on Sunday at Acrisure Stadium. Here are four questions for them and the rest of the NFL to ponder ahead of Week 12, when they’ll travel to face the Browns in Cleveland on Thursday Night Football.
Are the Steelers viable contenders for the AFC’s No. 1 overall seed? The Chiefs’ loss to Buffalo on Sunday evening opens the door, at least theoretically. Winning out from here, which would include securing a tie-breaking head-to-head win against Kansas City on Christmas Day, would be enough to eliminate Patrick Mahomes and Co. from contention. And while the Steelers don’t face the Bills head to head, they’d secure the second tiebreaker by winning out by nature of winning more conference games.
Buffalo has two losses within the AFC compared to the Steelers’ one. And that’s before you factor in additional possible losses by the competition. Buffalo has tough remaining matchups against San Francisco and Detroit, two of the best teams in the NFC. The Chiefs, meanwhile, face Houston and division rival Denver, which proved to be a tough out last week.
Few people are likely picking the Steelers in this three-horse race because their remaining schedule is also difficult, with trips to Philadelphia and Baltimore in the offing. But few people expected them to be in the conversation at all during the preseason. So who’s to say they can’t surprise us further?
Will anyone be able to watch Steelers-Chiefs reliably? It’s an open question after Netflix struggled to handle the audience for the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson boxing match Friday night at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Viewers had widespread issues getting the live stream to load successfully. And even when they managed to, the picture coming across was often blurry and laggy.
Netflix estimated the audience for the fight to be 60 million, which is a huge number even by NFL standards. Only the Super Bowl drew more viewers for any single game last season, so it’s possible a smaller audience than the fight will alleviate some issues. Netflix has also likely studied how fellow streaming giant Amazon has made its Thursday Night Football package work successfully for a few years. Considering the possible magnitude of this game, however, the server-side issues did not inspire a ton of confidence.
How long can the Steelers keep overcoming their shoddy receiver corps? After his long game-winning touchdown against the Commanders, Mike Williams was nowhere to be found Sunday. In his place, we saw Calvin Austin III finish with minus-1 receiving yards and a key first-quarter drop on his two targets. Van Jefferson also had a crucial drop of his own in the second half on his sole target. Many like to defend this group by noting that Arthur Smith’s offense is not meant to feature depth receivers.
They argue that George Pickens, the tight ends and the running backs can do plenty in the passing game. While that may be true, these kinds of performances are unacceptable. There’s a difference between a play-caller not highlighting guys like Austin and Jefferson and them going completely invisible for long stretches of time before squandering the opportunities they do get.
Coach Mike Tomlin better hope that Williams can get acquainted with this offense quickly because efforts like we saw from Austin and Jefferson on Sunday will get the Steelers beat as the stages get bigger in the coming weeks.
Does the Lions’ dominance make them the Super Bowl favorite? It’s not just that they’re 9-1 and running away with the NFC. It’s that they’re developing a habit of absolutely browbeating opponents. Already this season, they’ve beaten Dallas 47-9 and Tennessee 52-14. Sunday, they made it a hat trick of blowouts with a 52-6 blowout of Jacksonville.
No, none of those teams that they’ve shellacked are very good. But in an NFL increasingly ruled by parity, it’s hard to outclass opponents by such margins. Patrick Mahomes may have three rings, but he doesn’t have the Lions’ statistical brilliance right now. And as much as Steelers fans likely would prefer to see their team in the Super Bowl, a Chiefs-Lions matchup in New Orleans is becoming hard not to daydream about as a possible consolation prize.
First Published: November 18, 2024, 3:49 p.m.
Updated: November 18, 2024, 6:37 p.m.
