Early race for the 1 seed and homefield advantage...

Was just thinking about this if the Bills beat the Titans tonight, the Steelers beat the Browns Sunday, and the Chiefs beat the Bills in Buffalo next Monday the Steelers will be the only undefeated team left in the AFC at 5-0 and would give them a nice leg up 5 games into the season for the top seed in the AFC.

One could also argue that you might want the Bills to actually beat the Chiefs also and hand them a 2nd loss already to the Steelers no losses and keep the Bills undefeated at 6-0 if you don’t consider the Bills as much of a threat as the Chiefs are which I still don’t think they are. Either way the Steelers are in a nice position now in terms of setting themselves up to get that top overall seed and homefield throughout 5 games into the year. If they can win these next two games with the Browns and Titans and get to 6-0 heading into Baltimore on November 1st they will really have a chance to put a complete strangle hold on this division by winning that game in Baltimore.

So we will see how things play out these next 2-3 weeks but one thing is for sure things look very good for the Steelers early on in this season and they are gonna have a tremendous opportunity to make things even better for themselves in these next 2-3 weeks if they can somehow find a way to win all of these games they have coming up.

 

Not too worried about capturing the number one seed at this point. A lot more concerned about just winning next week and go injury free if possible. Still, having that in hand is a nice start to getting to the playoffs.

 

Steelers need to take care of business vs Browns and Ravens before they start thinking about playoff seeding. Steelers need to go at least 4-2 in the division, which is possible. Bengals shouldn't be much of a threat this year, but let's hope we don't have a Tomlin egg-lay against them... which is also possible.

 

I think the word "if" is used the most when talking NFL.

IMO the AFC North could have 3 of seven playoff teams and I do not see the Steelers on top. I still think the top seed will be one of these 3, KC, Bills or Ravens. Time will tell.

At the moment my main concerned is will the NFL make it to the playoffs.

 

The team needs to be laser focused on the Browns as this will not be an easy victory. Treat it as a must win game. Way too early to look at playoff seedings. Take the games one at a time and let the chips fall where they may. I do agree the Steelers are captains of their own ship right now though.

 

If ifs and buts were soup and nuts...

We aren't guaranteed playoffs this season. We're not even guaranteed a game against the Browns on Sunday. I agree with what you're saying in premise, but honestly, the only concern is the next game. That should actually be the only concern during a normal season as well. Looking forward does you no good as a team. Fans, on the other hand, can draw up insanely outlandish scenarios about the future without consequence.

 

Nothing I have seen so far makes me think we are in the same class as Bmore or KC. Hell even Buffalo might be a notch above us the way Allen is playing. I feel that we are around the 4th or 5th best team in the AFC right now but that can change.

 

Also was just reading about a possible playoff bubble so I don’t think the home field aspect will even matter

 

The way things are going, the number 1 seed might be a distinct disadvantage. There's almost no way there won't be a week 19, and if the number 1 seeds sits week 19 they have to sit first week of the playoffs. We tend to play down after a week off, and I don't even want to know what would happen with a two week break.

 

Just win every possible game you can, there is no room for let down games, and teams you should beat in AFC this year.

It's just stacked with talent, and with as bad as NFC East is, the Steelers, Ravens, and Browns will feast with wins.

Steelers are 4-0 and against teams that they should of beat, that hasn't always happened. So far so good....

Have to make the bread with the division games.

 

Wins are what matter. Being the 1 seed is a great advantage having to play 1 less game in the playoffs.

Though if you can’t be 1, than be the 2 seed. They play #7 at home, then have another home game.

Only way to be 1 or 2 is to win the division. I’m not ready to crown the Ravens yet. If you want to crown them, then crown them. Last I looked at the standings, they were looking up at the Steelers. Beat the Browns and that will stay true for another week.

Ravens are not invincible. 15-1 seasons don’t happen very often, so the likelihood is they lose more games. Steelers get to cracks at beating them. If they can’t do so, better hope someone else beats them in the playoffs. IMHO, if Steelers are 6-0 going into that game, they will have a great shot. But, let’s just take care of the Browns first.

 

There was talk somewhere that if they have more COVID schedule shuffling they may add a week to the end of the season and push the playoffs back a week. That would give the 1 seed two weeks off. I’m not sure if that would be a good thing or not?

 

I don't see the Steelers earning the #1 seed... which is fine by me. 2-4 would be ideal, IMO. Hell.... after missing the playoffs for the past 2 years, 5-7 would be fine with me.

 

Just making the playoffs will be nice lol.

 

Way too early to be thinking about the playoff seeds, just take it one game at a time.

 

Why is it too early to be thinking about it?? We the fans aren’t playing the games the players are. They are the ones who need to focus and take it one game at a time which I’m sure they will do. And yes since the Steelers after tonight’s Bills Titans game will be one of 2 undefeated teams at the moment remaining in the AFC and both the Chiefs and Ravens already both have a loss and the Steelers don’t so it’s not too early to be thinking about it at all. If this is gonna be a Super Bowl team like we all hope it will be and think it will be then it’s definitely something to monitor on a week to week basis because it’s very important.

 

Stop right now. Our season is only 25% complete. One game at a time.

 

Why not? The Chiefs got humbled by a Raiders team that is a bubble playoff team, and the Ravens got absolutely blown out at home in a "statement game" vs the Chiefs. No one has really shown that they are an "unstoppable force" by any means. Even if we won every game by a blowout there's still the "lets see you do it against real competition" factor...

We will have an opportunity to prove ourselves, but its 4 games in for us and too early to say that we aren't on another team's level. We have Cleveland and Tennessee coming up (both of which could be big "statement games" for us) followed up by our first game against the Ravens. A 2-1 or 3-0 stretch vs. these teams could very well put us in the conversation as one of the top teams to beat in the AFC. If we go 0-3 or 1-2, we will be just another bubble team trying to scrape our way into a WC spot. Its just too early to make that call. Hopefully its the former rather than the latter, but only time will tell.

On a side not, I like our chances as I feel like we match up really well against all 3 teams that really rely on having a thriving rushing attack to be successful. These are teams that will struggle from behind due to poor QB play in the case of Tenn and Cleve, and the style of offense/QB in Baltimore's case (Jackson is fantastic, but can struggle if forced to win with his arm from behind). Only the Ravens of the 3 really have a defense that I feel should give us fits. We won the ones we are supposed to, now we have to win the ones we "need to".

 

I hope they don’t even consider something like that. To play an entire regular season in teams own home stadiums without any huge issues and then do the playoffs in a bubble would be ridiculous and unfair to the teams who win their division and earn the homefield advantage.

 

Exactly. We’re fans there’s nothing wrong with discussing this

 

Blasphemy!

Bite your tongue!

3 teams from the AFC North would mean an Ohio team making it!

Blasphemy!

 

No I’ll keep thinking about it and keep it in the back of my mind while still focusing on the next game and opponent. I can do both perfectly fine and it won’t have any impact what so ever on how the Steelers perform on the field. As long as they aren’t doing it there is no issue or nothing wrong at all with doing this.

 

Ummmm .... because we can't do anything about it?

 

The Ravens Eagles game in Philly interest me this week. The Ravens haven’t been playing all that great and I think that is gonna be a tough game for the Ravens to win. The Eagles have played better the last two weeks and need to win that game so I don’t think that game is gonna be an absolute slam dunk for the Ravens.

 

OK. Shut down the forum. Open discussions have no bearing the outcome of games. Just figured out I've been wasting way too many years here. And right when I thought screaming through the keyboard during game day threads really set the team on track.