What a great way to ring in the New Year! The Penguins enter 2024 on the back of three consecutive victories, two of which were triumphs over the New York Islanders, a division rival against whom the Pens have struggled mightily in recent seasons. Manchester City arrive in the new year after consecutive Premier League wins against Everton and Sheffield United and find themselves a mere two points behind league-leaders Liverpool, despite the poor run of form City had in their previous seven engagements. While Pitt men’s basketball blew an 11-point lead on the road to Syracuse, that was the only black mark on an otherwise pleasant end of the year, as the Steelers also find themselves on a win streak, having beaten the Cincinnati Bengals at home before traveling to Seattle and triumphing over the Seahawks yesterday evening. The Steelers will again be the focus of this entry, as there is much to discuss.

First, I want to give a lot of credit to Mason Rudolph. In stepping in for a pathetic Mitch Trubisky and starting the last two games (both victories), Rudolph has amassed 564 passing yards and 2 touchdowns while completing 68.6% of his passes and committing no turnovers. He led the team to consecutive 30-point outings during which the entirety of the 64 combined points were scored by the offense. The Bengals game saw the Steelers gain 397 yards of total offense (a decent, albeit not Earth-shattering total), but the game against the Seahawks was an explosion to the tune of 468 total yards, aided by Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren combining for 197 yards on the ground and 3 touchdowns (122 yards and 2 touchdowns, and 75 yards and the opening score, respectively). In a statistic that is equally important, although not often discussed, Rudolph was only sacked twice in these two games, with one occurring in each. The offense has been good in almost every facet in the past two games, as outlined by the statistics in this paragraph. Rudolph has proven himself to be, at worst, a competent backup, and a competitor for the starting job at best. This was corroborated by the team announcing that Rudolph will start the team’s must-win, week 18 game at Baltimore on Saturday.

The defense played better against Cincinnati than it did against Seattle (forcing 3 turnovers and conceding only 11 points in the former, while forcing 1 turnover and conceding 23 points in the latter), but made timely plays in both games, complementing the offensive performances. One example of this is the fumble that Nick Herbig forced in the middle of the fourth quarter on the first Seahawks’ offensive snap after a Chris Boswell field goal re-established a 7-point lead for the Steelers. He knocked the ball out of QB Geno Smith’s hand and recovered the ball at the Seattle 16, allowing the Steelers to drain 2.5 minutes of clock and kick a short field goal to stretch the lead to two possessions. Despite getting stretched in the first half, the defense only gave up field goals in the second half (three of them), which was a major key in solidifying the team’s 9th victory of the season.

I know that in my previous entry, I lamented the idea of the “non-losing” season streak continuing, as it has left the team more-or-less mired in mediocrity. However, I would like to give some credit to Mike Tomlin for continuing to win games late in the season. Almost every year, it seems as though the team is destined to lose their last few games and finish poorly. That does not happen. Despite falling to 7-7 after three horrendous losses against the Cardinals, Patriots, and Colts, the team is now 9-7 and still has a shot to make the playoffs.

These are the results that must occur so that the Steelers can make the playoffs:

• Beat the Baltimore Ravens Saturday evening, who sewed up the #1 seed in the AFC yesterday, and thus should not be playing any of their star players
• Hope the Buffalo Bills lose to the Miami Dolphins on Sunday night OR root for a tie Saturday night between the Indianapolis Colts and Houston Texans (highly unlikely)

Essentially, the Steelers need to win and hope that Tua Tagovailoa and the Dolphins can handle Josh Allen and the Bills in Miami, a rematch of a game earlier in the season in which Buffalo walloped Miami by 28.

My main complaint with the ultimate week of the 2023-24 NFL regular season is the scheduling. Should the Steelers win against the Ravens (Saturday, 4:30pm ET kickoff), they will likely have to wait *checks watch* 27 hours (!!!) to know if they will be making the playoffs, as the Dolphins and Bills square off on Sunday with a kickoff at 8:25 ET. Who thought this was a good idea? I know that the Dolphins and Bills being the Sunday Night Football game makes sense, as it is the contest where both teams have the most to gain or lose, but why put the Steelers’ game so far in advance?

Assuming we win on Saturday (which will hopefully be the case, but I will not take the Ravens’ backups for granted), Sunday will be a day of agony and misery, waiting and hoping, praying that Miami can get it done that night (assuming the Colts and Texans do not tie, which is a pretty safe bet). I hope this scheduling decision backfires. It is torturous to decide that one team should have to wait 27 hours to see if they make the playoffs when the week 18 NFL games are scheduled based on the scenarios by which teams can clinch a playoff spot or be eliminated from contention. Maybe it will not matter–there is certainly the possibility that the Steelers lose Saturday–but if it does, Steelers’ fans are in for one miserable Sunday.

Happy New Year!