Saturday was, in some ways, the de facto AFC North division title game. The Pittsburgh Steelers could have clinched the division had they won, but the Baltimore Ravens prevailed, 34-17, leaving the race wide open for these final two weeks of the regular season.
Both teams are 10-5, but the Steelers are in first place via tie-breakers. Therefore, neither team can clinch in Week 17.
Either team can claim the AFC North by going 2-0, provided the other team goes 1-1 or 0-2 during the run-in.
That’s self-explanatory, but what happens if the Ravens and Steelers split their final two and thus finish 11-6?
Well, one permutation of outcomes would hand the division title to Baltimore instead of Pittsburgh.
In the early 2000s, Canadian rocker Avril Lavigne asked, “Why’d you have to go and make things so complicated?”
Because we have to; that’s our job here.
It all comes down to the divisional record tie-breaker. If both teams finish 11-6, the Steelers would have to lose at home to the Cincinnati Bengals on January 5, and Baltimore would have to win at home against the Cleveland Browns on the same Sunday.
In other words, this is coming down to the final day, but despite this weekend’s result, the Steelers still look better than the Ravens.
