Tim Benz: Steelers' completely unpredictable path to a totally believable regular-season result

In the end, the 2023 Pittsburgh Steelers took a completely unpredictable path to a totally predictable result for their regular season.

They finished 10-7, in third place of their own division and in an AFC wild-card spot behind two other teams from the AFC North.

How predictable was that? Well, even a dummy like me made that exact prediction before the season began.

As for what was so unpredictable:

• They got to the end of that road by winning their last three games after three straight losses to non-playoff opponents. They had sunk to 7-7 and 11th place in the conference after 14 games.

• Third-string quarterback Mason Rudolph piloted them to each of those final three victories.

• They earned a sparkling 5-1 record in the AFC North, a division where every team finished above .500 (a first since 1935). Yet they finished third in that division and lost three of four games to teams in the AFC South. Only one team from that division — the Houston Texans — qualified for the playoffs.

• Their strength of victory was an AFC-best .571. Yet they lost to four teams that failed to make the playoffs and to the Cleveland Browns with Dorian Thompson-Robinson at quarterback.

Considering all that, do we celebrate the Steelers’ resilience in pulling themselves back from the postseason ledge?

Or do we fault them for taking what could’ve been a 12- to 13-win season and turning it into a nail-biting playoff qualification and the longest playoff odds in the NFL?

The answer is neither.

Or, if you prefer, both.

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Hey, I admit it. I thought the Steelers were cooked after they fell to 7-7. When they lost back-to-back games at home to a pair of two-win teams from Arizona and New England and then looked lifeless while getting blown out by Indianapolis, I assumed their season was over.

Who didn’t?

So applaud head coach Mike Tomlin for getting the Steelers’ playoff train back on the tracks.

But don’t forget he was also the conductor when it ran off the rails three weeks in a row as well.

Also, remember that he was the guy in charge who had assumed for the better part of two years that Trubisky was a better option than Rudolph as Pickett’s backup.

And he was the guy who kept Matt Canada in charge of the offense for 10 weeks when he had 35 games of evidence over the two previous seasons to realize that promoting him in 2021 was a mistake in the first place.

However you want to praise or marginalize the Steelers for getting into the playoffs, just keep in mind they’ve attained a status they were always capable of attaining. There are 32 NFL teams. Fourteen of them are still alive. That’s 43.7%. Just a little less than half.

The Steelers should be — and always should have been — on the guest list for that party. It’s just that they were so sloppy in mid-December that they almost lost the invitation.

The team is exactly where I thought it would end up after 17 games. I just have no idea how it got here, and I have very little idea how they can upset the Bills in Buffalo on Sunday.

If they do, that will unequivocally define this as a successful season.

If they don’t, well, I’m sure we’ll figure out a way to make it sound like it was anyway.