There wasn’t much for the Pittsburgh Steelers to play for in any sense, especially once it became abundantly clear that the Buffalo Bills would not be losing, and thus it would not be possible for them to move up from the third seed to the second. Basically, there were three things on the line.
One was the continuation of their NFL-record sack streak, which they accomplished in the first half when Chris Wormley got his first of the season. Another was finishing the season leading the league in sacks, which in doing so made them the first team in NFL history to do so for four consecutive seasons.