Slumping Steelers Find Themselves in All-Too-Familiar Territory in Wild-Card Round

The Pittsburgh Steelers are the biggest underdog in the NFL wild-card round for the second year in a row. Yikes.

The Steelers will their face AFC North rivals the Baltimore Ravens on Saturday night, and right now, Pittsburgh sits as a 10-point underdog. This is unfortunately familiar territory for Pittsburgh since last year the Steelers were a 10-point underdog to the Buffalo Bills. The Bills ended up winning that game 31–17.

Pittsburgh is heading into the wild-card game on a four-game losing streak—definitely not the results the team was hoping to end their up-and-down season on. They didn't score over 17 points in that four-game streak, and they haven't been favored in a game since their last win, which came over the Cleveland Browns on Dec. 8.

On the flip side, the Ravens are coming into the playoffs on a four-game winning streak. Baltimore even beat Pittsburgh 34–17 in that span. The Steelers previously beat the Ravens 18–16 on Nov. 17.

Saturday's game marks the fifth time the AFC North rivals have faced each other in the playoffs with the Steelers having won three of the previous postseason matchus. However, Baltimore won the most recent game in 2014.

The odds are definitely not in the Steelers' favor, but they could surprise NFL fans this weekend. If Pittsburgh does eke out a win, it will be the team's first playoff win since the 2016 season.