Wildcard standings...

If the Steelers can beat the Bills head-to-head, they've got a good shot at passing them. Right now, that's a big if because the Pittsburgh offense is a mess.

 

I agree with everything you said good breakdown. If the Steelers beat the Browns, Bills, and either Arizona or the Jets and get to 9 wins before that Ravens game that should be good enough for them to get in and win tiebreakers over teams like the Bills, Colts, Raiders etc with a 9-7 record.

 

Five Thirty-Eight's playoff predictor has the Steelers currently at 31%. Sunday's game basically becomes a +/-20% game. Win and their playoff chances increase to 50%. Lose and it plummets to 10%.

 

Well hell, that's a 10% better chance than we have of making the playoffs last year with one of the most talented teams in the history of the NFL. Coach of the year! Hell yeah baby!

 

I think the Bills win 10

 

Yea I was going over that simulator as well seeing what happens if there is a 3 or 4 way tie at 9-7 with the Bills, Colts, Raiders or Titans and a lot of the 3 way ties have the Steelers getting in if that happens and a few don’t based on strength of victory. It’s a little too early to determine that because we don’t know who is gonna beat who to get to 9-7 in the upcoming weeks. I think as I keep mentioning if the Steelers beat both the Browns and Bills at home even if they lose to Arizona and are 8-6 going into the Jets game in New York we will have a much better idea with 2 weeks left in the season how the tiebreakers will come into play. It’s just too early to determine right now. But taking a look at a bunch of scenarios on the simulator where the Steelers are 9-7 with those other teams they are looking like they would be in very good shape to get in.

 

The Bills winning yesterday in Dallas which I didn’t think would happen but was definitely possible has now made the Steelers getting one of those two wildcard spots a little more tougher. Because now unless the Bills lose out they are gonna finish at least 10-6 so even if the Steelers beat them in 2 weeks the Steelers still need to either go 10-6 or have the Bills lose out to win a tiebreaker over them. So while the path is now not impossible it has become slightly more difficult. The best way to get in now is gonna be over both the Colts and Raiders and winning tiebreakers over them which is what the Steelers have right now. Props to the Bills though yesterday on a very impressive win in Dallas. They definitely have made the Steelers wildcard path somewhat tougher.

 

This post didn't age well

 

among other offensive players.

 

Remember the 9-7 Arizona Cardinals were a few minutes away from beating the Steelers in the Super Bowl. The NFC East this season can be won with an 8-8 record the way Cowboys and Eagles are playing but with a super easy schedule the Eagles will go 10-6 or 9-7.

 

Playoffs are not happening IMO. Would love the feather in the cap to say we made the playoffs even though we would get smoked in first game. This team goes 8-8 will be an accomplishment after all the injuries. Regardless how they finish Tomlin stays on as Coach. I know some of you want him gone but he ain't going anywhere.

 

I was right with ya until the last two sentences.

This team is a trainwreck. Part of it is self-imposed, part of it is bad coaching, and part is terrible luck. But a trainwreck, none the less. Things aren't looking very good for them or their playoff chances. That won't change until the offense starts playing like a top 20 offense. And by squeaking out a victory against the winless bungles, they most certainly didn't improve in any aspect of team or playoff chances.

All that happened by the end of last Sunday was that their playoff standing changed. They still need to hold on to it as well as prove that they deserve to be mentioned as a playoff team.

 

It would be great if we are still talking playoffs after playing 14 games. Before then, the playoff predictor ain`t worth squat.

 

And we could easily drop all 5 of those games. So there's that. We are not better than any one of those teams. If we are lucky the Raven's consider it a bye week and bench their starters...and they will still beat us and end our season.

 

Well after they won yesterday, Bills got a good firm grip on the #5 spot. Impressive year for the Bills, they got a good D and Allen has improved.

Steelers only shot is the last spot, and it will be very hard to get at this point.

 

I will say that an aspect of the team that might have improved is they found a way to win.

 

Is it Saturday already ?

 

I feel bad arguing this, because I really want to find some positives about the team. But I just can't be optimistic about squeaking out a win against the bungles. And I shouldn't compare the two, but right now the ratbirds play a bad team and totally throttle them. We play a worse team and are ducky to get the W (yes, I meant to say ducky...see what I did there?)

 

Ok, I'll add "with practice squad players."

 

Then why would that make us lucky?

 

Because we lose by 10 instead of 40?