Whether the Steelers make the playoffs or not, you can’t say nobody wants to face them

Steelers fans are a cocky, arrogant bunch.

Take my brother, for example, who said of the 2019 edition: “Believe me, if they make the playoffs, nobody will want to face them.”

After LMAO, I informed my brother that there are any number of teams that would love to face the Steelers if and when they reach the postseason.

The Chiefs are one such team. If the prospect of facing the Steelers, who will go into a possible No. 3 vs. No. 6 match-up in Kansas City led by rookie quarterback Devlin Hodges, a man who hasn’t been able to do much to break the offense’s habit of scoring one touchdown per game, doesn’t make the Chiefs’ mouths water, I don’t know what will.

And that’s why I think it’s a disservice for the NFL to keep the Chiefs’ regular season-finale against the Chargers in the 1 p.m. time-slot and not move it to 4:25, when the Steelers/Ravens and Texans/Titans games kick off.

Can you imagine how much incentive Houston would have to go all out if it started the game knowing it had at least a puncher’s chance of walking away with the third seed?

The chance to face a Steelers team without Ben Roethlisberger, without Antonio Brown? A team that will likely be without James Conner, the only man in the backfield capable of replacing the skills of Le’Veon Bell at running back? A chance to face JuJu Smith-Schuster and his sudden lack of confidence? A chance to face an offensive line that has spent the entire season looking old, slow, and it’s over?

If the Chiefs take care of business in the early game, I’m guessing they’ll be rooting hard for the Texans to stay motivated and knock their AFC South rivals out of the playoffs. Why? Why face the team that eliminated you from the playoffs two years ago, when you can face a squad with such a limited offense, and with a young quarterback who will surely have a ton of trouble dealing with the Arrowhead Stadium noise?

This has all just been my smug way of saying that it’s laughable to think teams wouldn’t want to face the Steelers in the postseason.

In year’s past—including last year, when Pittsburgh had a healthy Big Ben and a sane AB and knocked off the Patriots and gave the Saints all they would handle? Yes, I could definitely see the Steelers heading into the postseason as a team nobody wanted to face.

Only, they didn’t advance to the playoffs last year, which made such big talk by Steelers fans possible. As for this year, ha ha, right. If the Steelers make the playoffs, they’ll clearly be a desired match-up for any opponent—yes, even with (say it with me) “This defense!”

I’m not saying they wouldn’t have a chance, just that they wouldn’t strike fear into anyone.

When a team is heading into its final game, and fans are saying things like, “Maybe they should give that Paxton Lynch a shot,” you got problems and they are great.

Therefore, if they don’t make it to the postseason, please save the chest-beating. The 2019 Pittsburgh Steelers are and will forever be a team everyone wants to face in the playoffs.