Dale Lolley

With the Baltimore Ravens on a bye, the Steelers knew going into Sunday's game against the Cleveland Browns knowing that no matter what happened, they would still maintain a lead in the AFC North standings.

PHILADELPHIA - Oftentimes on the road, teams have to survive the wave of emotion provided for the home team by their crowd.

BALTIMORE - Often when the Steelers and Ravens play, the game comes down to which team makes the fewest mistakes. And which one takes advantage of those mistakes.

When the NFL schedule was released earlier this season, the six-game stretch that began with a road game at Cleveland on a short week and ended with the Chiefs on Christmas Day was considered a make-or-break stretch for the Steelers.

With the results of Week 17's games of the NFL schedule, the Steelers now know what lies ahead of them for playoff possibilities.

Needing a win to secure the No. 5 seed in the AFC playoffs, the Steelers fell short.

With the Steelers' 19-17 loss to the Bengals on Saturday night at Acrisure Stadium, their playoff opponent in next weekend's Wild Card round remains up in the air.

With the NFL's expansion of the playoff format over the years, rematches of division games have become increasingly more common.

Going through some struggles heading into the postseason isn't ideal. Every team would love to go into the postseason on a 17-game winning streak, meaning it hadn't lost a game during the regular season.

Steelers lose to Ravens, 28-14