NFL Week 18 reactions and overreactions

Your weekly look at the Pittsburgh Steelers and the NFL.

Talking some NFL football.

1. Even though they made it really difficult on themselves at times, both during the season and during their Week 18 win, the Pittsburgh Steelers managed to win the AFC North and secure a home playoff game on Monday night against the Houston Texans. They blew a three-game lead early in the season, nearly blew a two-game lead with two games to play, and made things really intense during their 26-24 win over the Baltimore Ravens.

It might be one of the wildest, weirdest and craziest games I have ever attended. Not necessarily the best game, but definitely one of the craziest. It was a scene.

2. What I am not going to do is call the Steelers lucky for winning. Sure, if Ravens kicker Tyler Loop had made his field goal at the end of regulation the outcome, the season and several discussions right now across the league would be very, very different. But he did not make it. He missed it. The only reason the Ravens were even in a position to potentially win the game on that kick is because the Steelers missed a kick 55 seconds earlier at the end other end of the field. If one missed kick would have been lucky, so would the other.

Sure, Baltimore losing safety Kyle Hamilton was a game-changing moment for their defense, but the Steelers were playing the entirety of that game without their No. 1 wide receiver (DK Metcalf) and (in my opinion) their most complete tight end. Let’s call it even.

At the end of the day the Steelers out-gained the Ravens (by a wide margin), had twice as many first downs (24-12), ran nearly twice as many plays, dominated the time of possession, had more sacks, and more takeaways. There was not one area where the Ravens had the upper hand. If anything, the Ravens were lucky to even still be in the game at that point.

Were the Steelers perfect? No. Far from it. The offense took three quarters to really get moving. The defense had two big busted coverages in the fourth quarter that nearly ruined what was an otherwise strong defensive showing. But they did enough. They swept the Ravens, won 10 games against one of the league’s toughest schedules and unlike recent seasons are actually going into the playoffs on a little bit of a roll. They have won five of their past six games, including several games nobody really gave them much of a chance to win (both Baltimore games, at Detroit). It is creating a little bit of a different feel going into the playoffs than recent years.

Is that because of how they are playing right now? Because Aaron Rodgers might have more juice left in him than Russell Wilson did, or than Kenny Pickett/Mason Rudolph ever did? Is it what is perceived to be a more winnable matchup (not that it will be easy)? Because they are playing at home, and on Monday night where they have traditionally done well? A combination of all of the above? Maybe that. Just a combination of everything.

3. Speaking of vibes, what a great crowd. That was a question I had going into Sunday night. What kind of crowd was going to be in the stadium? Would Steelers fans show up? Would Ravens fans buy up tickets? Would Steelers fans have a doom-and-gloom approach after the way the team played in Cleveland? How quickly would things turn if they fell behind early?

From the moment I arrived in the stadium it was pretty clear it was going to be an electric atmosphere. It immediately had that big-game feel. Even when the Steelers fell behind 10-0 there was not really much sense of panic. Nobody was screaming for people to be fired or giving up or leaving. Even the missed fourth downs did not change the overall buzz. People were still in it. It also never stopped.

When it became obvious that Loops kick was going to sail wide right the crowd pop in that stadium, the noise level, and the atmosphere was one of the loudest I have ever heard in that place. The only other one that really comes close was the reaction to Troy Polamalu’s interception return in the 2008 AFC Championship game. It was just legit excitement. Then nobody wanted to leave the seating area after the game ended.

Great feel. Great atmosphere.

4. We need to talk about the coaches in this game. The losing coach, John Harbaugh, has already been fired and will probably have a new job relatively shortly. The winning coach, Mike Tomlin, may not have necessarily saved his job (because it probably was not in any real danger) but at least quieted the discussion around it.

First, it is going to be really weird to see Steelers-Ravens games without Harbaugh on the sidelines. It has been 18 years of this, and that is a long time.

My opinion on both coaches and their job statuses is pretty similar.

Things might be stale in both instances. Maybe Harbaugh would not have won big in Baltimore again. Maybe Tomlin will not win big in Pittsburgh again. But both teams are still good every year and still in it. That is hard to do and hard to find, and there is a good chance the next coach will not be as good. You better make sure you get the next hire right when you make that sort of call.

5. Having said that, the one weird thing about this game as it relates to Harbaugh and his decision-making is that I actually liked the fact Lamar Jackson was going to play. Not because I do not like Jackson or do not think he is good. Quite the contrary. He is excellent, and he is objectively better than Tyler Huntley.

BUT.

There was a thought in my head that with Jackson in the lineup Harbaugh was more likely to ignore Derrick Henry, overthink the process, and not run his superstar running back as much as he should. He has a habit of doing that. He has a habit of doing that against the Steelers.

The two Ravens fans sitting next to me on Sunday night were in complete agreement.

Then the game ended with Henry carrying the ball just 20 times. I know the Steelers really limited him in the second half, but given how close the game was and some of the situations the Ravens had I can not believe he did not get more work in.

The most baffling of those decisions came after Baltimore completed the fourth-and-seven pass in the final seconds to set up Loop’s field goal attempt. There were still 24 seconds remaining on the clock. They had two timeouts. They could have given Henry a carry and tried to pick up a few more yards and make it an easier kick. Instead, they let Jackson take a knee to re-position the ball, and then let the clock run down for the game-deciding kick. Yeah, Loop had been perfect on kicks under 50 yards this season. But you just watched the other kicker miss an extra point at the other end of the field less than a minute prior. It was a cold night on a bad field. It is one of the toughest stadiums in the league to kick in. You have a rookie kicker that already screwed up one play earlier in the quarter when he sent a kickoff out of bounds to give the Steelers the ball at the 40-yard line (resulting in a go-ahead touchdown for the Steelers). Just saying, “hey, 45-yard field goal? That is good enough,” is a baffling decision to me. It will remain a baffling decision.

6. No matter the outcome of that, and no matter the outcome of the playoffs, the Mike Tomlin discussion is not going to go away. Like I said above, if you came to me and said, “I do not think Mike Tomlin and the Steelers are ever going to win big together again, things are stale, and both sides need a fresh start,” I would not offer any pushback on that. You could convince me of that. I am not sure I disagree.

Where I will pushback is with the arguments that he was never a good coach, MUST be fired, or should have been fired years ago.

No. I do not agree with that and you will not convince me of that. You will probably never convince me of that.

I know Steelers fans get tired of talking about the no losing seasons thing, but there is a middle ground here between it being the only thing that matters and it being a meaningless thing. It is impressive to always have your team in contention no matter what the roster looks like. The NFL is not designed for one team to be consistently competitive and in the playoffs (or at least in playoff contention) every year for 20 consecutive seasons. The salary cap, free agency, and the league’s parity are literally designed to make that not possible.

Having said that, the Steelers do need to eventually win in the playoffs again to make it truly matter more. Not necessarily a Super Bowl, but the occasional game here and there. You need to at least get closer. This season presents a very good opportunity for that.

But I am also not going to be mad about winning 10 games every year, especially with the recent collection of quarterbacks. They have won 10 games in each of the past three seasons, making the playoffs each time, with Kenny Pickett, Justin Fields, Russell Wilson and now Rodgers as their quarterbacks.

Pickett is now on his fourth team in five years.

Wilson’s previous team thought so little of him they wrecked their salary cap for a year and paid him $50 million to go away. His next team after Pittsburgh benched him four weeks into the season.

Fields’ previous team was willing to trade him for a sixth-round pick. His next team after Pittsburgh won three games with him.

Rodgers won four games with the Jets a year ago and had not played in the playoffs since the 2021 season. He is also 42 years old.

The Steelers won 10 games with all of these guys as their primary quarterbacks. That is, quite frankly, nuts. Somebody is doing something right.

Now, why are those guys their primary quarterbacks is a valid discussion to counter that. They need to do better at the position. But they know that. That is why they keep trying. There are a lot of teams that struggle to find good quarterbacks. That is not a uniquely Steelers thing. Other teams simply do not stay as competitive as the Steelers do with such bad and unimpressive quarterback play.

Now let’s talk about the rest of the NFL and the 2025 season as a whole, including the greatest stat of the 2025 season, Carolina hosting a playoff game, the head-coaching carousel, a Super Bowl prediction and more.