It’s unclear if the Steelers will have Ben Roethlisberger or Heath Miller when they host the Colts on Sunday Night Football in Week 13. Roethlisberger is in the league’s concussion protocol and Miller left Sunday’s game in Seattle with a rib injury.
The Steelers (6-5) definitely will be without one thing that they had before Sunday’s 39-30 loss to the Seahawks. They no longer have control of their playoff situation. Even if they win their five remaining games and finish 11-5, that doesn’t guarantee a playoff spot.
They’re among five AFC teams with 6-5 records, and tiebreakers are not in their favor. Their 3-4 conference record is the worst among those five teams and the Chiefs, who currently sit in the No. 5 seed in the playoff picture, have beaten them.
Been saying it for weeks now…Steelers are in real jeopardy of missing the playoffs. 4-1 seems awfully unlikely. pic.twitter.com/VY0sZkU95H
— Dave Dameshek (@Dameshek) November 30, 2015
There was a time when a trip to Seattle meant an “L” on your schedule in ink, but the Steelers had a chance to become the first AFC team to win at CenturyLink field since 2011. Their formula for winning this season has been to mask their weak secondary by forcing turnovers. They didn’t force any Sunday, and Russell Wilson threw for a career-high five touchdowns and a regular-season career-high 345 yards.
The Steelers fell to 30th in the league in pass defense, allowing 283.6 yards per game through the air, but are still 11th with 20.9 points allowed per game. That’s because they’ve forced 18 turnovers.
However, only three of those forced turnovers have come on the road. The Steelers’ bend-but-don’t-break defense does tend to break on the road, and three of Pittsburgh’s five remaining games are away from home.
The defense is just as much of a concern as Roethlisberger’s status. The Steelers are in playoff contention even though Roethlisberger has taken only 57.8 percent of the team’s snaps according to Sporting Charts. Landry Jones has won two home games this season after replacing Roethlisberger. It’s not hard to see him leading the Steelers to a win over the Colts at Heinz Field if Roethlisberger has to sit out, and that would give the Steelers a much-needed head-to-head tiebreaker. All of a sudden the AFC South looks like it could send two teams to the playoffs. The Colts and Texans are tied atop the division with 6-5 records.
The Steelers then go to Cincinnati in Week 14 and host Denver in Week 15. They’ll have their work cut out for them to beat those division leaders.
Then in the final two weeks of the season the Steelers go to Baltimore and Cleveland. The Ravens and Browns will have nothing to play for, but they could ruin the Steelers’ playoff hopes.
Those playoff chances were damaged badly enough Sunday.