The Pittsburgh Steelers now stand at 6-5 and in second place in the AFC North after once having a two and a half game lead over the Baltimore Ravens. And with that a packed AFC Wild Card race, the Steelers’ chances of making the playoffs have continued to fall downwards.
Before the team’s Thursday Night Football loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, the team stood at well over 80 percent to make the playoffs, according to ESPN’s playoff predictor. Now, they stand at just 50 percent. Some models, however, have it far worse.
The Athletic’s model has the Steelers at just 18 percent, predicting them to finish with a losing record from here on out.
Time is not on the Steelers’ side and a loss to the Bears now has the locker room feeling the pressure of that. While there is no panic just yet, Steelers veterans Cam Heyward and T.J. Watt acknowledged that time is ticking on the team to mold into a better version of themselves.
“If we make a couple plays at the end and we win this game, we say, ‘Oh, we’re moving forward and we can learn from this,’” Heyward said. “But the hourglass is going, and the sand is falling through. There’s not a lot of time for mistakes.”
The Steelers will face the Buffalo Bills and they can still make gains if they can get one over the Baltimore Ravens in two weeks. Yet, the team’s inconsistencies and mediocrity, especially defensively, make it hard to see that.