After Week 8’s blowout loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, the Pittsburgh Steelers sat at 2-6 and many projected them to finish with a top five pick. However, everything changed after the bye week. Thanks to the Steelers going 6-2 in their last eight games after the bye, they now have a realistic chance to make the playoffs.
Following a last-minute win Sunday night against the Baltimore Ravens that kept the Steelers alive in the playoff hunt, Pittsburgh jumped up two spots to No. 16 on ESPN’s weekly power ranking. In the excerpt explaining each team’s season in five words or less, Steelers beat reporter Brooke Pryor wrote, “Before and after the bye.