It wasn’t so long ago that the Pittsburgh Steelers were 7-4 and seemingly in comfortable position. They controlled their own playoff fate and even remained in position to compete for homefield advantage, if they could beat the Baltimore Ravens in the season finale.
Flash forward five weeks and now the finale against the Ravens means something very different—for both teams. Baltimore has already locked up homefield advantage. The Steelers, in most qualifying scenarios, would need to win the game and still get help outside just to qualify for the postseason.
But given the developments of the past couple of weeks, it would be a shame, from the perspective of ESPN’s Bill Simmons.