Sunday’s loss to the Cleveland Browns was a gut punch for the Pittsburgh Steelers in many ways. It continued to expose long-apparent flaws in more transparent ways—always more damaging in a loss. More practically, it also robbed them of their opportunity to control their own divisional fate.
At least until now during any reasonable point in the season, the Steelers still maintained a certain degree of autonomy over what happens in the AFC North. If they were simply to win the rest of their games, regardless of what anybody else had done, they would have been the division champions.