Everyone Steelers fan worth his or her Terrible Towel knew what was at stake entering Week 18 of the season. The Steelers could make the post season if several things happened:
- First and foremost, the Steelers had to beat the Baltimore Ravens on Saturday afternoon, which they did, 17-10, behind the the quarterbacking of Mason Rudolph and the running off Najee Harris, plus some strong defense.
And on Sunday....
- Tennessee needed to beat Jacksonville, OR
- Miami needed to beat Buffalo, OR
- Miami and Buffalo could tie
Tennessee had nothing to play for. They were not making the post-season regardless of the outcome, and all Jacksonville had to do was win, and they would make the playoffs, win the division, and get a home game in the playoffs. The Titans, playing for nothing but pride and, one could argue, the integrity of the game, laid one on the Jags, 28-20, and eliminated them from the post-season.
This rendered the results of the Bills-Dolphins game moot, from a Steelers standpoint, except to determine who and where the Steelers will play this weekend. In an absolutely terrific, albeit not totally artistic, game, the Bills defeated the Dolphins, 21-14, and secured the #2 seed in the AFC. Thus, the Steelers will travel to Buffalo on Sunday for the 1:00 game. And if they win, they will once again head to Baltimore to take on the Ravens in the Divisional Round, and how delicious would that be?
One step at a time, though.
As everyone knows, the Ravens team that Steelers defeated was not the Ravens team that at the moment appears to be the best team in the AFC, if not the entire NFL. With nothing to play for, QB and presumptive MVP Lamar Jackson was only one of several notables to sit out this one. The Ravens were not unique in this regard. The 49'ers sat Brock Purdy, and Joe Flacco did not play for the Browns, and there were others throughout the League. By the time Jackson and Purdy play in the Divisional round, it will have been three weeks since they would have played any real football. Time will tell if this proves to be the right decision for these players and teams.
I will save my ruminations on who I think will win and advance to the next round for later in the week, but until then, here are the Grandstander Power Rankings including all fourteen playoff teams.
- Ravens 13-4 (Last week - 1)
- 49'ers 12-5 (2)
- Lions 12-5 (3)
- Cowboys 12-5 (6)
- Bills 11-6 (7)
- Browns 11-6 (4)
- Rams 10-7 (9)
- Dolphins 11-6 (5)
- Chiefs 11-6 (10)
- Eagles 11-5 (8)
- Steelers 10-7 (unranked)
- Packers 9-8 (unranked)
- Texans 10-7 (unranked)
- Bucs 9-8 (unranked)
I would be remiss if I didn't make mention of tonight's College Football Playoff Championship Game between the Universities of Michigan and Washington.
I am looking forward to watching this one and can only hope that it will be prove to be as entertaining and as competitive as the two semi-final games that produced this matchup. For what it is worth, I put some money on Michigan at -5.5.
In actuality, what has been rolling around in my cranium for the last several weeks has been a column on the state of college football, which served to produce a bowl season of stunningly mediocre, boring, and downright lousy and meaningless games except for the two CFP semi-final games, and, we hope, the title game this evening. However, the busy-ness of the Holiday season, a brief two night vacation, and the NFL have served to allow whatever ire I had over the whole thing to dissipate and made me put this idea on the shelf. Perhaps for another day.
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