Bills would have to win out idk if I see that happening. Could be
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Merry Christmas
"You've heard people brag about 'being in the zone'. They don't know what the Hell being in the zone is about. I played in the NFL for 15 years and I was only in the zone that one time." - "Mean" Joe Greene on the 1974 playoff victory over Oakland
Somewhere there is an alternate timeline where the Tuck Rule bullshit was never called. The Raiders kneel down to win the game, and go on to lose to the Rams in the Super Bowl. Brady returns to the bench the next season, and is traded at the deadline for draft picks. He compiles a career record of 6-16 as a starter over four seasons with the Jets, Bengals, and Lions, before retiring in 2006 to open a gay bar. The Patriots enter 2019 as one of the remaining 11 teams never to have won a Super Bowl.
See you Space Cowboy ...
Patriots lose and are whining about the refs.
Cry me a river.
I don’t think there’s any way the Ravens take it easy on us if they have a chance to knock us out of the playoffs.
But if we win the next two games and the Titans lose to the Texans next week, would that guarantee us a playoff spot?
It would be fun if we can rest starters against the Ravens. Lol
Yes, but both the Titans and Texans are on track to own the tiebreaker if either of them gets the same record as us and does not win the division.
The main problem is that we only play conference teams, while they also play one NFC team each which might either give them the tiebreaker of tie it, and strength of victory doesn't look good for us.
Of course if we beat the Bills we most likely will end up higher than them so we won't need to worry about Tennessee and Houston...
See you Space Cowboy ...
True, but Titans don't automatically win tie breaker if we are tied with them. It would take both teams going 0-3 I believe. Anyway Steelers control their own destiny which is nice. Hate counting on crap teams to get a win in December for us to move on.
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True, but Titans don't automatically win tie breaker if we are tied with them. It would take both teams going 0-3 I believe. Anyway Steelers control their own destiny which is nice. Hate counting on crap teams to get a win in December for us to move on.
Agreed and we need to beat Buffalo next week.
If we assume that the Titans go 1-2 and we do as well (we only beat the Jets, they beat the Texans once):
Conference us 7-5 them 7-5
Common opponents (CLE, IND, BUF, LAC) us 3-2 them 3-2
Strength of Victory will most likely go to them because we have only beaten one team with a winning record (the Rams)
If we finish 10-6 we're in, there is no scenario in which we would miss at 10-6.
An interesting stat:
Yesterday, James Washington was the oldest skill-position player for the Steelers.
What does that mean? The offense is too young (stupid? naive?) to know that they shouldn’t be winning games.
SUMMATION:
I agree: this defense is good enough to win a championship, as long as the offense “doesn’t kill us.”
Joking and Tomlinisms aside, the offense is starting to click a little bit more with each passing week. We are starting to see some of these young guys break out, specifically DJ... which should free up JuJu when he comes back.
Ravens host Jets then @Browns next two weeks - if Ravens win both of those they will clinch the #1 seed since they win Pats tiebreaker
If that happens Harbaugh probably would play Jackson in the first half to avoid a three week layoff before the playoffs but having Jackson play the full game (unless it becomes a blowout) simply to win a game of no significance while risking injury would seem unlikely
Steelers just need to take care of business the next two weeks against Bills and Jets
New York Times playoff calculator gives Steelers 100% shot to make playoffs if Steelers win the next two weeks
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...core-ios-share
If the Steelers beat the Bills and the Jets, they are 100% playoff bound. In Week 17, they’d be playing for seeding (#5 vs. #6).
That said, later this week, I’ll post an updated “For Whom to Root” thread.![]()
I feel that way, if the Ravens can knock the Steelers out of playoff contention, 1st round bye locked up or not, they will try to. It's that scenario like the 2010 Bears vs Packers in the finale. The one team the Ravens do NOT want to see in the playoffs is the Steelers. You don't want to play a divisional rival in the playoffs because anything can happen. Even though the Steelers on paper would appear overmatched, divisional rivals always have a familiarity with each other that makes either team dangerous. Also look at the divisional playoffs in 2008, Pats vs the Jets. Everyone thought this would be a laugher, but Sanchez and the Jets #1 defense took down the Patriots at Foxborough. This is the kind of crap that happens in the playoffs when you play a division opponent.
The only way I see the Ravens resting their starters for us, is if beating us would drop us from the #5 seed to #6 seed. Then it wouldn't be worth the risk to start Jackson (especially if they don't want to see us in the playoffs, dropping us to a 6th increases the chances of meeting them if they're the #1 seed).
I pretty much agree with you. But I really have a hard time swallowing resting starters against your most heated division rival in any circumstance. It would suck to be in the stands watching your team give one away...no matter what. Now, if Baltimore started blowing out Pittsburgh (or vice-versa), maybe the risk/reward would warrant pulling starters. But I would not want to “give a W” to the Steelers due to looking at two weeks down the road.
And yes, while a Steelers-Ravens Divisional Playoff would likely be a helluva game, I’d rather pass. As it is highly likely Baltimore will get a 1st round bye (and #1 seed), I would not prefer to play the Steelers three times.
In 2012, when Baltimore won the Super Bowl, Harbaugh pulled Flacco and Rice in the first quarter of week 17 with the seed clinched: https://www.pro-football-reference.c...1212300cin.htm
Especially with Jackson now banged up and a Pittsburgh D that definitely would try to hit him as hard as possible without being flagged, I cannot imagine Harbaugh playing Jackson in that game if they have clinched the No. 1 seed.
It would be dumb, just to rub it in to division rival especially with a running QB.
Still, we then would need to beat RG3 on the road, possibly with the Ravens starting linemen and defense, so still no gimme...
I don't think the division rivalry has anything to do with it. If you've got the #1 seed wrapped up and your opponent has the playoffs on the line - you try to knock them out if they are a team you'd rather not face in the postseason. If you don't care one way or the other, then you lie down. That will be most of the time. And either way you probably don't pull out all the stops and show your surprise no-huddle wishbone strategy or something, you just take a shot and if you're down at halftime, then oh well, time for the backups.
See you Space Cowboy ...