Tim Benz: Steelers must exploit stretch of non-divisional games before reentering thick AFC North fray

We are more than a third of the way through the NFL season, and we are still trying to figure out who the Pittsburgh Steelers are.

Far be it from anyone in the Pittsburgh media or the Steelers fan base to presume that they’ve got the rest of the AFC North figured out.

Because I’m sure similar conversations are being had in Baltimore, Cleveland and Cincinnati. Like the Steelers, those teams are .500 or better. And they’ve all got significant questions.

Even at 5-2, the first-place Ravens have to be asking themselves how they blew that game against the Steelers two weeks ago and how they lost at home to the Indianapolis Colts.

Meanwhile, in Cleveland, there seems to be no clarity about what’s happening with quarterback Deshaun Watson. Or, based on how well that Browns defense is playing, does that even matter?

And the two-time reigning North champion Cincinnati Bengals have won two in a row and are perhaps finally getting healthy coming off a bye. Then again, they have a brutal schedule with games against the 49ers, Bills and Chiefs remaining, along with four in the division.

Then, of course, there are the Steelers at 4-2, 2-0 in the division, but with a minus-24-point differential, rotten offensive stats all over the board, two non-competitive blowout losses on their resume and three road games within the division still to be played.

As soon as you start to make a list of reasons why one of these teams is about to separate from the pack, two reasons pop up as to why they won’t.

And vice versa.

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Yet, here we are with all four divisional teams at 3-3 or better. As of now, the Ravens would be the third seed in the conference, the Steelers fifth and the Browns (4-2) sixth with Cincinnati a half game behind Buffalo for the final wild-card spot?

Could all four teams get into the playoffs? No. That’s a pipe dream. But could three? Yeah. I can see it.

As predicted by many in August, the Jacksonville Jaguars look like the only clear-cut postseason team in the South. The East looks like a two-team race between the Bills and Miami Dolphins. Everybody after the Kansas City Chiefs in the West is under .500.

So, yes, three teams in the North could make the playoffs. Why not? Three teams from the NFC East made it last year, and aside from the Philadelphia Eagles, I think that division was puffed up. This year’s AFC North is at least as good as that bunch was after Philly.

Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves, however. As late as Week 14 the entire AFC East was above .500, with a 13-win Buffalo team eventually claiming the title. Yet, they barely got the Dolphins in as the last wild card at 9-8 via a head-to-head tiebreaker over the Steelers. In fact, the Jets and Patriots ended up with losing records.

In a way, though, that helps prove the point of how tenuous success can be and how much competitive divisions like the North can cannibalize one another. Stuff like that is great when we are talking about RPIs from multi-bid, big conferences in college basketball. It is not so great when we are talking about it the NFL tie-breaking system for the playoffs.

Given all that, it behooves the Steelers to make the most of these weeks out of their division before they have to jump headfirst right back into it again at the end of November with trips to Cleveland and Cincinnati.

The Steelers already started their first four games out of the bye strong with a 24-17 win in Los Angeles against the Rams. Now they have three straight home games against the Jaguars, Tennessee Titans and Green Bay Packers.

Jacksonville is coming in as a 2.5-point favorite at 5-2. The other two teams are a combined 4-9. Mike Tomlin’s team can’t afford to do worse than 2-1 over these three games and enter those back-to-back contests in Ohio on Nov. 19 (Cleveland) and Nov. 26 (Cincinnati) any worse than 6-3.

Don’t forget, the Steelers finish the year with a typically tough trip to Seattle on New Year’s Eve, sandwiched between divisional games at home against the Bengals and at Baltimore to end the year.

The Steelers’ fate will come down to what they do within their own division and what the division does around them. So before they re-enter play within it, they’re best served building up as good of a record as they can outside of it over these four weeks exiting the bye.

That record better be at least 3-1.

At least.