On Sunday night’s win-or-go-home-for-the-winter, the Pittsburgh Steelers are headed to the playoffs and the Baltimore Ravens’ season is over in Week 18, well below their preseason expectations.
Pittsburgh beat Baltimore 26-24 after rookie Tyler Loop missed a field goal to clinch the AFC North title, its first since 2020. The fourth-seeded Steelers will host the No. 5 Houston Texans on Monday night to wrap up Wild Card weekend.
Head coach Mike Tomlin and the Steelers (10-7) are now on course for their third straight postseason appearance after the 2025 regular season, where they started the year 4-1 before sprinting to .500 at 6-6. After that, Aaron Rodgersand Co. won. three straight wins before being upset in Week 17 by the Cleveland Browns to set up a dramatic Week 18 finale.
In the aftermath, John Harbaugh’s Ravens (8-9) saw a streak of two straight division titles, right along with a three-season playoff berth. It’s a massive fall from grace for a Baltimore team that entered the 2025 campaign as a Super Bowl favorite.
Instead, Lamar Jackson and the Ravens superstar quarterback will join Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs and Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals at home in the postseason in an incredible shift.
As a result, Rodgers is back in the playoffs for the first time since 2021 with the Green Bay Packers.
Meanwhile, Tomlin has won his eighth AFC North title since becoming the Steelers’ head coach in 2007, a streak that now includes 13 playoff stops.
There are loftier goals ahead for Tomlin and the Steelers, however, who have lost their last six playoff games, a streak dating back to the 2016 season, when Pittsburgh last won the postseason en route to the AFC Championship Game.