World News – USA – What the Steelers need to get their place in the playoffs, division and more

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There are several milestones the Steelers aim to achieve for the remainder of the season.

Who would have thought the Pittsburgh Steelers would be in such a great position this off-season that the discussion about how things should go for them to get a playoff spot would take place before Thanksgiving? But it is true! There’s a scenario where the Steelers could take a playoff spot in week 12 thanks to their 10-0 start to the season.

The thing that really comes down to playing with a lot of matchups in the NFL and clenching certain positions has to do with tiebreakers. With six games remaining for each team, tiebreakers get very tricky. For example, the Steelers already have a tiebreaker over the Tennessee Titans, but they have yet to play the Indianapolis Colts, so a tiebreaker there is undetermined. Another example is that the Steelers currently have tiebreakers over the Baltimore Ravens and Cleveland Browns as they have already defeated these two teams, but with one game remaining against either of them, that tiebreaker could change. And with teams not playing the Steelers in 2020, that keeps changing from week to week.

Because of these complexities, our first look at some of the magic numbers for the Pittsburgh Steelers when it comes to sorting things out with the 2020 postseason is going to ignore Tiebreakers a bit but talk to each of them as they come up. If the Steelers finished a game before either of these teams, the tiebreakers wouldn’t care. Therefore, these numbers reflect what it takes to get to the spot without a tiebreaker in most cases.

Where are the Steelers sitting right now when it comes to closing certain things with the 2020 postseason? Here are the numbers that are required for certain milestones. Remember that a “magic number” is decreased by a Steelers win or an opponent’s loss. Owning the tiebreaker would mean a further reduction of one provided there is no tie between multiple teams.

With the Cincinnati Bengals officially eliminated from the AFC North race, the Steelers will face both the Baltimore Ravens and the Cleveland Browns. Here’s the magic number to cluster the north over each of these teams:

The chance of the Baltimore Ravens becoming the first team in AFC North history to win the division title for three consecutive seasons is held in place by a thread. With a combination of three Steelers wins or three Ravens losses officially eliminating them, the Steelers can reduce that number to zero on Thursday. If the Ravens took both the win and the loss and the tiebreaker, they wouldn’t be fighting for the Northern title anymore.

With the Cleveland Browns three games behind the Steelers, it would take a combination of four Steelers wins and Browns losses to knock them out. With the two teams yet to compete against each other in week 17, the Browns will hopefully be out of competition at this point.

There are 10 teams mathematically able to catch the Pittsburgh Steelers to at least tie them in record form. The Steelers have to stay before six of these teams. So a combination of knocking out four of the teams listed below would mean a playoff birth.

The best any of these teams can do is win every game while the Steelers lose their six remaining games. Even then, their records would only be bound. With the Steelers already defeating the Broncos, it would take a very strange multi-team tie to even stand a chance at a tiebreaker. But just a Steelers win or a loss for both teams and they can’t catch Pittsburgh in the standings.

As the Ravens have already explained, the Dolphins and Raiders have very little headroom to compete with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Since they don’t play either of those teams this season, other tiebreakers like the conference record would determine who comes out on top. But those two teams will face each other in week 16 so either one of them is guaranteed to lose or both have a tie which still gives the Steelers the edge. For that reason, if the Steelers beat the Ravens and lost both the Dolphins and Raiders (or some combination of a loss and a tie), the Steelers would secure a spot in the playoffs. If both teams tie it is technically not the case as they would have to tie in week 16 and win all of their games while the Steelers lost all of them.

Since all four of these teams are just one game of the three above, it’s a pretty realistic situation where they’ll be further down the list and could be overtaken first. It also helps that the Colts and Titans play against each other in Week 12. Ironically, the Pittsburgh Steelers have either faced or will face all of these teams in this group.

In order for the Steelers to secure first place in the AFC, they must have eliminated all of the aforementioned teams as well as those listed below.

If the Steelers don’t want to rely on tiebreakers, who totally depend on which teams the Chiefs lose to later in the season, they’d have to end a game before them. Right now the Chiefs are just one game behind the Steelers 9-1. So if the Steelers want the top seed in the AFC, there is little room for error right now as the Steelers can only control the six remaining games. In order not to need help, they have to keep winning.

So here’s a quick rundown of what the Pittsburgh Steelers would need to secure certain positions in relation to the 2020 postseason. As the end of the season approaches, the exact tiebreakers will become much clearer and can consider the equation as well. But for now, those magic numbers would allow the Steelers to seal those positions by simply having a better record.

Pittsburgh Steelers, NFL, Ben Roethlisberger, Baltimore Ravens, Jacksonville Jaguars