Nothing but upside..... and the week 17 'bye' scenario

Like everyone else here, I'll be holding out all kinds of hope that the Steelers can find a way to beat the Ravens in T minus 15 hours. It would be very nice to still have divisional dreams after this week and a win against the Ravens puts us firmly in the driver's seat for a wildcard. Circumstances being what they are, that is certainly an 'upside' scenario.

BUT.... if we end up 6-6 AND we get a relatively healthy Ben back next week, I think there's a good chance we could be, say, 8-7 heading into week 17 AND have already clinched the #6 seed....effectively giving us a week of rest for our starters before the playoffs begin. In this scenario, the two wins would need to be our home games against San Diego and Cincy

It starts with a Chargers win over Cincy tomorrow. Hopefully SD can get up for exactly one more game to send Cincy to 6-6. Then, if we beat SD, they will be 5-8 and out of the picture. Assume Cincy splits with Dal and Philly and we lose to Dallas on the road. We're both 7-7, we beat Cincy and then have the tiebreaker over them so they can't catch us....

Dolphins at 5-6 will almost certainly lose to New England and at San Francisco. That puts them at 5-8. Then, they have home games against Jacksonville and Buffalo. We would need a split there because if they're 7-8 heading into week 17, that forces us to win since they would have a better conference record than us if they finish 8-8. A split is possible, but maybe wishful thinking a bit.

Titans at 4-7 have a murderous schedule. Best case for them is 6-9 heading into the final week. Good thing since they have head to head against us.

Jets at 4-7 have a relatively easy schedule....then again, that's probably what the teams PLAYING the Jets are thinking as well. They could go on a
bit of a run, but I would say 7-8 is best case for them heading into week 17, and we have HTH against them. Of course, I'm not thinking of the weird 3-way tie scenarios that could exist, but since things probably will be different than I'm scripting them here, why put myself through THAT.

Buffalo at 4-7, ironically, could throw a wrench in the above plan as they have 3 winnable games at home in the next 3 weeks. Plus, if Buffalo at Miami are both 6-8 heading into week 16, one of those teams HAS to win and if either is 7-8 heading into week 17, that forces us to win and NOT rest our starters.

Let's hope we get a big win and none of this is necessary, but if we DON'T, I'll still be holding out hope (even if a fool's hope) we can rest our starters in that final week. And, while I'm dreaming, if we're going to be #6, I hope the Ravens are #3 and we get to play them healthy. What sweet revenge that would be. Then, Houston at #1 and win the AFC Championship in Denver!!!!! To me, that would be the best path to hope for....

But as the cliche goes, one game a time!!!! HERE WE GO STEELERS, HERE WE GO!!!!!

 

I can not sleep. I got on to see what was up. I read this. I still can not sleep and now my head is hurting. Win. That is all.

 

I have been fascinated with tie breakers and playoff possibilities for long time now. The part I find interesting is that with 4 weeks left, you can concoct a 10-6 scenario where the Steelers miss the playoffs and the 8-8 scenario where they do. With 4 games left and 8 teams still in play there are literally tens of millions of scenarios. A varitable universe of possibilities. However, at 8-8 I would not like their chances. But as you point out, their chances at 8-8 are greater than zero.

 

Man I like the way u think

 

ok, how about this-

The Steelers win the next 3 games. Baltimore loses 2 of 3 (@Washington, Denver, and NY Giants). We go into week 17 tied for first place at 10-5.

The Ravens have been whistling past the grave yard all season, winning at least 3 games they should have lost (NE, Dallas, and SD). Today they lost at home, where they are supposed to be invincible, to a team quarterbacked by Charlie Batch. They ain't that good, at least not 9-3 good.

The look on Flacco's face was priceless at the end, realizing that once again he had coughed up the ball to the Steelers in the 4th quarter leading to a loss. It read- "I will never get to the Super Bowl".