Steelers Now
One NFL insider believes the Pittsburgh Steelers will finally get the monkey off their back this season.
It has been eight years since the Pittsburgh Steelers last won a playoff game. However, one NFL insider believes that streak will finally come to an end this season.
“I’ll say Mike Tomlin will get his first playoff win since 2016,” ESPN insider Jeremy Fowler wrote. “The Steelers will win the AFC North and steal a wild-card game at home. They are flawed, but they have an identity built through their running game.”
The Steelers must first earn their spot in the playoffs before even thinking about winning a game in the postseason, but they are in the drivers seat when it comes to winning the AFC North. They can clinch their spot in the postseason in two ways before Week 18.
The first is if Pittsburgh wins in both Detroit and Cleveland over the next two weeks and then gets a little bit of help from either the Green Bay Packers or New England Patriots, who would need to hand the Baltimore Ravens at least one loss.
The second is if the Ravens were to lose both of their games against the Packers and Patriots and the Steelers win at least one of their games against the Lions or Browns.
Both scenarios could certainly happen, but in the worst case scenario that the Steelers lose their next two games and the Ravens win their next two, Pittsburgh can still win the division with a win over Baltimore in the regular season finale.
Who the Steelers would face in the wild-card round of the playoffs then becomes the next question, but given their recent history of falling apart down the stretch, it would be smart of them to focus on their last three games first.
Pittsburgh lost five straight games, including its wild-card matchup against the Ravens, to end its season last year. Now the team must do whatever it can to make sure that doesn’t happen again and prove its believers like McShay right that this could finally be the year to end its playoff win drought.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: Insider Predicts Steelers Will End Eight-Year Drought This Season
