Big Trouble in Steel City

I love NFL Saturdays with a passion, mainly because they come very late in the season. The NFL week usually starts on Thursday, with the heart of the week on Sunday, and the finale on Monday, but in mid-December, just a hair away from Christmas, we get Saturday football. This is mainly because college football's regular season is over, and it allows the NFL to places a few of their games on Saturdays during the end of the season. This year is no different. Week 15 includes the first of six straight NFL Saturdays; the final four weeks of the regular season, Super Wild Card Weekend, and the Divisional Playoff.

The main story, in my view, is the sudden downfall of the Pittsburgh Steelers. It's bad. We already saw them lose back-to-back games to two of the worst teams in the league, and the middle game of the Saturday tripleheader featured the Steelers in Indy against the Colts. Both teams entered at 7-6, and both teams needed a win. It looked good for the Steelers; a 13-0 lead to start. Unfortunately, they would find themselves down 14-13 at halftime, and the second half saw Pittsburgh completely forget what offense is. Mistakes, mishaps, and just all around bad play, resulted in the Colts capitalizing and winning 30-13.

The Steelers have now lost three straight, and four of five since starting 6-3. This is not good. The Steelers have had too many games where they just take teams lightly and don't give their all, and once again, it's biting them in the ass. Their playoff chances continue to decrease, and with this loss, the Steelers now find themselves in quite a desperate situation. Why, you ask? I'll explain.

Out of the six AFC teams who entered this week at 7-6, four of them played on Saturday. One of them kicked off the tripleheader: the Cincinnati Bengals, who appear to be on a roll despite being without Joe Burrow. The Bengals hosted the Minnesota Vikings, and despite scoring first with a field goal, Cincy found themselves playing catch up for a good bit of the game. The Bengals did manage to knot things up at 24, and overtime was needed. Cincy's first possession saw them go three and out, and while the Vikings were almost at midfield, they were stopped on short gain plays twice, resulting in great field position for the Bengals. Cincy reached the red zone, and Evan McPherson's 29-yard field goal won it.

With this result, and the result of the second game, not only are the Bengals above the playoff line, the Steelers are below it, and will remain so entering Week 16. The Bengals, Colts, and Browns are all in the Wild Card positions, with the Colts taking over the #7 position with their win. By the way, the last time both Ohio teams made the playoffs in the same season: 1988. They've never faced each other in the playoffs.

The other 7-6 team who played on the season's first NFL Saturday was the surging Denver Broncos, who entered this week just one game out of first place in the AFC West. Unfortunately for the Broncos, they had to face a Detroit Lions team on a mission--a frustrated team, at that. The Lions had suffered a home Thanksgiving loss, barely survived the Saints, and actually lost to the Bears. They had to remind everyone else who they were, and they did just that, a 42-17 blowout beatdown over the Broncos. The win improved Detroit to 10-4; their first 10-win season since 2014. In addition, they are also closing in on their first playoff appearance since 2016, and with the Vikings' loss earlier, the Lions can win their first division title since 1991 by defeating the Vikings on Christmas Eve. Regarding a playoff spot, the Lions can get it on Monday with a Seahawks loss.

As for the Broncos, they drop to 7-7, but are still within range of a playoff spot. The Steelers ended up passing them in the standings via tiebreaker, but again, they will remain behind the playoff line entering Week 16. Even crazier, Mike Tomlin's winning record streak could be in jeopardy. Next up for Pittsburgh is their home finale against the Bengals, and it's followed by visits to Seattle and Baltimore to end the regular season. Even worse for Pittsburgh, two of the other teams in this cluster have softball opponents next week. The Broncos host the Patriots, and the Colts go to Atlanta. The Steelers are in huge trouble. They need to win out, because if those other teams don't get knocked down a peg or two, their next loss could be their last.