Can we get to 9 wins?

[Steelerchad]

I think 9-6-1 takes the North.
Bengals are pretenders. Lucky to be 4-1 right now.
Ravens look ligit one week and then look terrible the next week.
Steelers have looked mostly bad with a little good. Some things came together yesterday. I have no idea how they held Julio in check. I was expecting 200+ yards and for him to break out of his TD slump.
Browns are up and coming.
If you asked me to pick a champ of the North, I'd take us. But you could make a case for anyone. And I believe we have the toughest remaining schedule.

[AtlantaDan]

I think 9-6-1 takes the North.
Bengals are pretenders. Lucky to be 4-1 right now.

Sort of like the Steelers kept winning close games last season and were lucky to be 13-3 - sometimes a team has a season where it over performs in close games before returning to the statistical mean on winning those sorts of games the next season

Steelers better win on Sunday in Cincinnati - a record of 2-3-1 and 0-2-1 in the division going into the bye week would not set up well for a run after the bye

Hard to say how much of the win yesterday was a Steelers resurgence rather than the Falcons giving up on their season

[Steelerchad]

Sort of like the Steelers kept winning close games last season and were lucky to be 13-3 - sometimes a team has a season where it over performs in close games before returning to the statistical mean on winning those sorts of games the next season

Steelers better win on Sunday in Cincinnati - a record of 2-3-1 and 0-2-1 in the division going into the bye week would not set up well for a run after the bye

Hard to say how much of the win yesterday was a Steelers resurgence rather than the Falcons giving up on their season

Not exactly the same thing. Going 13-3 over the course of a full season is a little different than a small sample of 5 games going 4-1.
The Steelers were 3-2 at this point last year and went on a nice run. I'm not advocating the Steelers are that good this year. In fact, the Steelers defense stinks. I'm basically saying the Bengals are not as good as their 4-1 record and will play the season out at around .500 the rest of the way and finish 9-7.

[FrancoLambert]

Going to step onto a limb and say this year’s Bengals team looks a bit better than past editions.
On the other hand, they still have Marvin Lewis.

[Mojouw]

As long as the Bengals o-line continues to protect Dalton they will score points on everyone. That offense is extremely talented.

Have not paid much attention to their defense, but they seem to be able to rush the passer and generate turnovers -- so good enough for 2018?

If the Steelers want the division, they will have to beat Cincy twice.

[steelreserve]

We have seen evidence that the team could win 11+ games, and that it could go 6-10. It's like two completely different teams. So far, we have seen the "good" team for about 5 or 6 quarters out of 5 games. No telling which will show up.

One thing I know is that while you can still be an entertaining team like that, it's no way to compete for a championship. If we don't see the "good" team more consistently, it's just going to be "hope you have enough to make the postseason, then play three hands of blackjack."

Maybe you can win a title that way if you get really lucky (Joe Flacco proved that), but more likely you end up like, say, the Golden State Warriors in the late '80s and early '90s, where you win a good number of games in the regular season but have so many of the same problems from year to year that everybody knows you aren't winning shit.

[DesertSteel]

13-2-1

[AtlantaDan]

Not exactly the same thing. Going 13-3 over the course of a full season is a little different than a small sample of 5 games going 4-1.
The Steelers were 3-2 at this point last year and went on a nice run.

A nice run based on pulling out a lot of close games (aka lucky)

The primary reason Pittsburgh won 13 games ... is the Steelers went 8-2 in games decided by one score

• In Week 6, the Steelers came up with a goal-line stand against the Chiefs in the fourth quarter of what would eventually be a 19-13 victory.
• In Week 8, Pittsburgh led the Lions 20-12 heading into the fourth quarter, only for the Lions to shoot themselves in the foot. Jim Caldwell kicked a field goal from the 1-yard line on fourth down (after failing on a fourth-and-goal in the same situation earlier in the half), Golden Tate fumbled away a ball on the Pittsburgh 24-yard line and the Lions came up short on a late drive that ended inside the 10-yard line.
  
• In Week 10, facing a second-and-17 on his own 18-yard line with 1:26 left in a tie game against the Colts, Ben Roethlisberger got the yardage over the next two downs to keep the drive alive, before Chris Boswell hit a 33-yard field goal as time expired.
• In Week 12, Roethlisberger drove the Steelers 35 yards in 13 seconds before Boswell hit a 53-yarder to beat an Aaron Rodgers-less Packers team 31-28.
• In Week 13, the Steelers trailed 17-3 at halftime vs. the Bengals in the game in which Ryan Shazier suffered his career-threatening injury before fighting their way back and winning 23-20 on another Boswell field goal as time expired.
• In Week 14, they trailed the Ravens 38-29 with 6:45 to go, only for Roethlisberger to lead them back for 10 points in just under six minutes, with Boswell again hitting a game winner from 46 yards out with 46 seconds left.

Of course, it would be easy to look at a veteran team like the Steelers and assume they have some secret to pulling out football games when they need a stop, but that hasn't been the case under Mike Tomlin. The 8-2 performance is an outlier -- the Steelers were 41-38 in games decided by seven points or fewer under their longtime coach before the 2017 season. And when you look at teams that won six more close games than they lost in a season, those squads did not keep it up the following year.

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/2...tions-schedule

Bengals "luck" this season may be similar to that of the 2017 Steelers although the Bengals only close win so far that is similar to those of the 2017 Steelers cited above is the last second win over the Falcons.

[Edman]

Yesterday showed something, that this Steelers team isn't as horrid as we first feared, but whether this team is actually good remains to be seen. We've seen the good, and a whole lot of bad. Good enough to contend, but not championship caliber.

The 2017 team put together one dominant win all of last year and that was against the Texans in Week 16. The other games were either close or hotly contested.

For comparison, the 2016 Team won eight games by 8 points or more.

[AtlantaDan]

Yesterday showed something, that this Steelers team isn't as horrid as we first feared, but whether this team is actually good remains to be seen. We've seen the good, and a whole lot of bad. Good enough to contend, but not championship caliber.

The 2017 team put together one dominant win all of last year and that was against the Texans in Week 16. The other games were either close or hotly contested.

Steelers arguably played their best game of 2017 when they smoked the Titans 40-17 at Heinz on a Thursday night

Best road win was 26-9 over Baltimore

Need that sort of performance this Sunday

[Steelerchad]

No. They had 5 wins of more than 15 points.
Texans, Titans, Ravens, Vikings, Bengals.
One of their "close" wins was also a 4 point victory against the Browns playing backups as we had already secured the #2 seed.
They also lost close game to NE that was about as unlucky as you can get.
So they were 5-1 in blowouts and 8-2 in games under 7. (4-1 in 3 point games).
Maybe the Bengals will prove me wrong and go 13-3 themselves. I'm going to go with closer to 9-7, but we'll see. I'm just saying the sample size is small.

[AtlantaDan]

As long as the Bengals o-line continues to protect Dalton they will score points on everyone. That offense is extremely talented.

Have not paid much attention to their defense, but they seem to be able to rush the passer and generate turnovers -- so good enough for 2018?

If the Steelers want the division, they will have to beat Cincy twice.

Defense now better with Burfict returning yesterday after his PED suspension

Wonder if Bell claiming he will be back but not until week seven had anything to do with Bell seeing Burfict was on the Steelers schedule in week six?

Agreed this is a must win - hard to see the Steelers winning the division or wild card tiebreakers within the division if they lose Sunday

[El-Gonzo Jackson]

Steelers are 0-1-1 in the division. Bottom line is have to with the division first, but only having 4 more games in the division to make an impact is challenging. Kind of almost need to beat Cincy 2X, then Ravens on the road and Browns at home. Its gonna be tough IMO. If they split with the Ravens and Bengals, then I think the best the Steelers can hope for is wildcard and that means beating out the Jags, Texans, Chargers and one of the other non winners of the North.

I think the Steelers need to go 4-0 in their next division games to have a shot at playoffs.

[st33lersguy]

Will likely need to go 10-5-1 to win the division at least

[86WARD]

If they don’t beat the Bengals on Sunday, they won’t win the division.

[st33lersguy]

They need to at least go 2-1 in their next 3 games (all divisional, or their chances are very slim). 1-3-1 and a 3-4-1 record if they go 1-2 the next 3 games. That would be bad

[pczach]

A nice run based on pulling out a lot of close games (aka lucky)

The primary reason Pittsburgh won 13 games ... is the Steelers went 8-2 in games decided by one score

• In Week 6, the Steelers came up with a goal-line stand against the Chiefs in the fourth quarter of what would eventually be a 19-13 victory.
• In Week 8, Pittsburgh led the Lions 20-12 heading into the fourth quarter, only for the Lions to shoot themselves in the foot. Jim Caldwell kicked a field goal from the 1-yard line on fourth down (after failing on a fourth-and-goal in the same situation earlier in the half), Golden Tate fumbled away a ball on the Pittsburgh 24-yard line and the Lions came up short on a late drive that ended inside the 10-yard line.
  
• In Week 10, facing a second-and-17 on his own 18-yard line with 1:26 left in a tie game against the Colts, Ben Roethlisberger got the yardage over the next two downs to keep the drive alive, before Chris Boswell hit a 33-yard field goal as time expired.
• In Week 12, Roethlisberger drove the Steelers 35 yards in 13 seconds before Boswell hit a 53-yarder to beat an Aaron Rodgers-less Packers team 31-28.
• In Week 13, the Steelers trailed 17-3 at halftime vs. the Bengals in the game in which Ryan Shazier suffered his career-threatening injury before fighting their way back and winning 23-20 on another Boswell field goal as time expired.
• In Week 14, they trailed the Ravens 38-29 with 6:45 to go, only for Roethlisberger to lead them back for 10 points in just under six minutes, with Boswell again hitting a game winner from 46 yards out with 46 seconds left.

Of course, it would be easy to look at a veteran team like the Steelers and assume they have some secret to pulling out football games when they need a stop, but that hasn't been the case under Mike Tomlin. The 8-2 performance is an outlier -- the Steelers were 41-38 in games decided by seven points or fewer under their longtime coach before the 2017 season. And when you look at teams that won six more close games than they lost in a season, those squads did not keep it up the following year.

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/2...tions-schedule

Bengals "luck" this season may be similar to that of the 2017 Steelers although the Bengals only close win so far that is similar to those of the 2017 Steelers cited above is the last second win over the Falcons.

I hope the Roethlisberger bashers are paying attention to what you posted here. You know, the ones that have been claiming he's done. The ones that say he sucks. The people that say he can't play anymore against good defenses.

Roethlisberger also put up 42 against a dynamic, dominant defense in the playoffs.

That all happened just last year.

Sorry about that....Now.....back to our regularly scheduled programing.

[Fire Goodell]

I think we can reach 9 wins if we can win 7 more games

[pczach]

I think we can reach 9 wins if we can win 7 more games

[teegre]

16-2-1

close

[vasteeler]

That's fucked up! Amost nauseating

[El-Gonzo Jackson]

I hope the Roethlisberger bashers are paying attention to what you posted here. You know, the ones that have been claiming he's done. The ones that say he sucks. The people that say he can't play anymore against good defenses.

Roethlisberger also put up 42 against a dynamic, dominant defense in the playoffs.

That all happened just last year.

Sorry about that....Now.....back to our regularly scheduled programing.

I'm not bashing Ben, but it seems you get a bit defensive on this topic.

Sure, he put up 5TD passes while playing the entire game from behind where he had to pass all the time. But he also put up 5 INT against that team earlier in the season didn't he? Also, the lackluster performance opening week against the Browns and others like 2nd half of Ravens game are what draws the ire of the knee jerk fans.

Hey, Ben is the best QB to ever play for the Steelers. Has 2 SB rings and another appearance, but its pretty clear that age and repetitive contact/sacks have taken their toll and we are seeing him now where he might only play 2 more seasons beyond this due to age and diminishing production. Father time catches up with everybody and he's probably 500 yards behind Ben and closing.

[pczach]

I'm not bashing Ben, but it seems you get a bit defensive on this topic.

Sure, he put up 5TD passes while playing the entire game from behind where he had to pass all the time. But he also put up 5 INT against that team earlier in the season didn't he? Also, the lackluster performance opening week against the Browns and others like 2nd half of Ravens game are what draws the ire of the knee jerk fans.

Hey, Ben is the best QB to ever play for the Steelers. Has 2 SB rings and another appearance, but its pretty clear that age and repetitive contact/sacks have taken their toll and we are seeing him now where he might only play 2 more seasons beyond this due to age and diminishing production. Father time catches up with everybody and he's probably 500 yards behind Ben and closing.

Sorry Gonzo. I shouldn't have posted that here. Dan and I were having a discussion in another thread about things people were saying in the game day thread.

I carried it over to this thread to make a light-hearted point, but in hindsight I shouldn't have posted that here.

[AtlantaDan]

Of course it is not just how many games left to play but the teams you are playing. According to ESPN the Steelers strength of schedule for remaining games does them no favors

Rest-of-season SOS ranking: 4th. The Steelers' toughest remaining game is Week 9 at the Ravens

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/2...s-all-32-teams

Based upon five weeks of games that strength of schedule rank seems more credible than the preseason schedule strength that is based on projecting from last season's games

FWIW I regard @Saints to be the toughest remaining game - but there are no more or less sure wins remaining since the Raiders game is @Oakland

Outside of division games, the Chargers at Heinz probably will be a necessary win if the Steelers are still in the running for a wild card and need to worry about tiebreakers

[86WARD]

On paper maybe the Ravens is hardest...clearly the writer had not seen the Steelers play the Raiders

[Steelerchad]

Tiebreakers shouldn't come into play this year as we already have a tie. Since we play the Browns again, whoever wins that game will own the breaker. If we don't beat the Browns in Pittsburgh, probably safe to say we may as well not worry about the playoffs.

[Fire Goodell]

Tiebreakers shouldn't come into play this year as we already have a tie. Since we play the Browns again, whoever wins that game will own the breaker. If we don't beat the Browns in Pittsburgh, probably safe to say we may as well not worry about the playoffs.

What if we tie the Browns again? They came close to tying the Ravens last week. I think they already have the crown of the #1 cardiac team in the league

With that said I think the Browns will be an interesting team this year. Their defense will keep them in a lot of games, and depending how Mayfield plays, I wouldn't be surprised if they're a .500 team or maybe even better. They have some good playmakers at RB and WR as well.

I'm thinking 9 wins this season will be tough though. There's no pushover games in the AFCN, and it may be the toughest division in the NFL right now.

[Shoes]

I think we can reach 9 wins if we can win 7 more games

[Shoes]

Steelers are 0-1-1 in the division. Bottom line is have to with the division first, but only having 4 more games in the division to make an impact is challenging. Kind of almost need to beat Cincy 2X, then Ravens on the road and Browns at home. Its gonna be tough IMO. If they split with the Ravens and Bengals, then I think the best the Steelers can hope for is wildcard and that means beating out the Jags, Texans, Chargers and one of the other non winners of the North.

I think the Steelers need to go 4-0 in their next division games to have a shot at playoffs.

I agree but I just can't see the Steelers pulling this off.

[pczach]

[/B]I agree but I just can't see the Steelers pulling this off.

They have to continue to do what they did against the Falcons. They need to be more consistent on both sides of the ball. If they do that, I think they can win those four games.

Nobody said this would be easy.