Saturday night isn’t just a must-win for Cincinnati. The Steelers can end the day anywhere from division champions to the sixth seed in the playoffs. Regardless of where they hit their pillows on Saturday night, all positive roads begin with a Pittsburgh win.
Baltimore is a 20-point favorite to beat Cleveland in Saturday’s early game and could clinch the division title before the Steelers kick off. The combination of Baltimore and Pittsburgh wins would lock the Steelers (10-6) into the AFC’s No. 5 seed. And if the Steelers beat Cincinnati (8-8) on Saturday (8 p.m. ET, ESPN/ABC), a win would give them a first-round trip to Houston, not Baltimore. Mike Tomlin, about to make his 12th career postseason appearance, knows the stakes.
“Certainly, they’re a motivated group trying to play their way into this tournament, but certainly we’re a motivated group, to be quite honest with you,” the head coach said Monday. “We got to get the stench of the last few performances off of us, and there’s no better way to do that than a home divisional win versus a formidable group going into the tournament, and so that’s our mentality as we stand here today.”
That stench could spiral into the Steelers’ first four-game losing streak in two years. Pittsburgh has lost three straight, although each loss came within a brutal 11-day stretch to playoff-bound opponent. The Steelers will have nine days of rest between games when they take on the Bengals. But former Steelers DB and ESPN analyst Ryan Clark said the game is more about quarterback Russell Wilson executing than either team out-coaching the other.
“This is the reason Russell Wilson is here, and Russell Wilson is leading with positivity,” Clark said Friday morning on Get Up. “He’s looking back at the 2005 Steeler team and trying to figure out how they lose three in a row, how were they at 7-5, how did they find a way to go win a Super Bowl? Because he actually believes this team is that good. If this team is that good, if that coach is the coach that I think he is, a future Hall of Famer, you got to win this game. But that dude standing on the other side wearing No. 9 is the best doing it right now.”
That dude is Joe Burrow, who leads the league in both passing yards (4,641) and touchdown passes (42). In addition to sneaking the Bengals into the playoffs and potentially playing his final game with wide receiver Tee Higgins, Burrow also has history ahead of him. He could become the fifth quarterback in NFL history with 5,000 passing yards and 45 touchdown passes, joining Patrick Mahomes (5,097 and 50 in 2018 with Kansas City), Drew Brees (5,476 and 46 in 2011 with New Orleans), Peyton Manning (5,477 and 55 in 2013 with Denver) and Dan Marino (5,084 and 48 in 1984 with Miami).
Burow also needs three touchdown passes to join Tom Brady as only the second player ever with at least three in nine straight games. Brady authored a 10-game streak in 2007.
For more information on the Steelers and Bengals, visit the Pittsburgh and Cincinnati team pages at ProFootballPost.com.
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