At 6-4, the Pittsburgh Steelers are one of just 9 teams currently with a winning record in the NFL. This number is down from 14 in 2014 after 11 weeks in the regular season. Being one of nine is a solid ratio for a team to make a postseason run, and if the Steelers can continue their pace for the duration of the 2015 regular season, it would equate to back-to-back postseason berths for the black and gold.
How likely is that scenario though, considering the team's final 6 games have some tough games among them? Our friends at NumberFire break down the Steelers percentages to make the post-season, win the AFC North and even advance to the Super Bowl.
Projected Record: 9.77 - 6.23 (Change: 0.06 wins)
Playoffs: 70.08% (Change: 3.38%)
Division: 6.14% (Change: 0.98%)
Conference Championship: 9.36% (Change: 0.9%)
Super Bowl: 4.52% (Change: 0.38%)
The Steelers projected record continues to hover under double digits, but a win this Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks could push their win projection over the 10 mark. Record projections aside, their percentage chance of making the playoffs is what improved the most, and the team didn't even play a snap of football in Week 11.
Coming off the bye week, the Steelers saw fellow AFC contenders all lose in critical games. The Miami Dolphins, New York Jets, Buffalo Bills and Oakland Raiders all lost in Week 11, giving the Steelers a comfortable one-game cushion as the No. 5 seed in the latest AFC Playoff Picture.
With the Cincinnati Bengals losing to the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday Night Football, the Steelers percentages of winning the division increased by nearly 1-percent, but again, the team's most likely avenue to the postseason is through the Wild Card, not by winning the division for the second consecutive season.
The Steelers are certainly in control of their postseason destiny with 6 weeks to play, and there isn't much else a team could ask for, especially with the myriad of injuries the team has faced to this point in the season. The Steelers have been extremely resilient under Mike Tomlin, which will need to continue if they expect to compete for a 7th Lombardi trophy, or if they are at home watching the Super Bowl like every other American on Super Bowl Sunday.