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Having a strong middle class is usually a good thing. Not if you are the 2020 Pittsburgh Steelers or Kansas City Chiefs, though.
Elsewhere in life, that’s true. Economics. Politics. Education. You know, less important stuff than the AFC playoff picture.
However, there seems to be a rising middle class in the NFL, and that appears to be posing a threat to some of the NFL’s elite.
Of whom, the Steelers certainly qualify.
Sorry to snob-shame you, fellas. But you are the cream of the crop. At 9-0, you’ve moved right into that posh Kansas City high-rent neighborhood with all their silver hardware and luxurious offensive amenities.
The first-world problem for the Steelers and K.C. is that some of their other neighbors have found themselves not-so-high-status lately. Especially when they’ve faced franchises in what was presumed to be the middle tier of the NFL.
Just ask the likes of the Baltimore Ravens, Buffalo Bills, Tennessee Titans and Seattle Seahawks.
For much of 2020, the postseason spaces appeared to be carved out in the AFC. The Steelers and Ravens would battle it out to see who won the AFC North, while the loser would likely be the top wild-card team. Similarly, the Chiefs (West), Titans (South) and Bills (East) were easy choices to win their respective divisions.
Those five teams were a combined 24-4 at the time. Conventional playoff predictions that had those clubs hammered into the top five spots of the AFC bracket were holding firm.
Meanwhile, just about everyone was penciling the Seahawks into the Super Bowl out of the NFC when they ascended to 5-0.
But a funny thing has happened on the way to the country club. Some of those teams have been plucked off by some surprising teams or are being threatened by some other franchises perceived to be in the second cut of their divisions.
Just look at this past weekend.
Baltimore (5-3) lost to the New England Patriots in ragged fashion Sunday night. Having already fallen to top-notch rivals in the Steelers and Chiefs, the Ravens are now three games back of the AFC North lead. And they are barely qualifying (via a tiebreaker with multiple teams) for the seventh and final AFC playoff spot as of now.
That victory got the Patriots closer to respectability at 4-5.
The Titans (6-3) lost Thursday night to the Indianapolis Colts (6-3), thus allowing Indy to catch the Titans for a first-place tie in the South. And, via the tie-breaker formula, Tennessee will now enter Week 10 in ninth place of the AFC, after starting 5-0. Since then, they’ve lost to the Steelers, Colts and Cincinnati Bengals.
And at 2-6-1, the Bengals can only dream of someday being labeled “middle class.”
The 7-3 Bills had previously lost to only Tennessee and Baltimore. Then, on Sunday, they blew a 14-point advantage against the Arizona Cardinals and lost on that already-famous Kyler Murray-to-DeAndre Hopkins “Hail Murray” pass.
DEANDRE HOPKINS CATCHES THE HAIL MARY FOR THE WIN! 🚨
(@AZCardinals)pic.twitter.com/6YoDckellc
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) November 16, 2020
What a gut punch. To say nothing of the fact that the Miami Dolphins have miraculously won a fifth-straight game in the AFC East. They are now 6-3, just a half-game back of Buffalo’s pace.
Those Cardinals (6-3) help exemplify the trend in the NFC. They’ve joined the Seahawks and Los Angeles Rams (6-3) atop the West in a three-way tie. Yet the Seahawks (6-3) suffered a costly division loss to the Rams last week, after falling to Arizona in Week 6.
As a result, once the conference’s top dog, technically Seattle is now in third place of their own division when you consider their divisional record (1-2) and head-to-head losses to the Rams and Cardinals.
Seattle and Arizona rematch Thursday.
For their sake, hopefully, the Chiefs saw what happened to other front-running teams during their bye week. They’ll try to avoid a second such defeat against the Las Vegas Raiders Sunday night. Las Vegas is the only squad to beat the K.C. this year, back in Week 5.
The Raiders are very much a part of that booming middle class, sitting in fifth place of the AFC at 6-3 after missing the playoffs a season ago.
The Raiders, Dolphins, Rams, Cardinals, Colts and Tampa Bay Buccaneers all failed to qualify for berths last year but are in the thick of the playoff hunt to start the second half of 2020.
The Steelers are part of that list, too. They just skipped a few rungs on the corporate ladder up to the executive suite.
This Sunday, the Steelers go slumming with the Jacksonville Jaguars (1-8), where they shouldn’t be tested.
This isn’t one of Mike Tomlin’s “five-star matchups” remaining on the schedule. But as Pittsburgh’s peers have witnessed, those aren’t the only games that are losable these days. It’s not just about those original five AFC big dogs beating up each other that’ll determine the eventual playoff structure of the AFC anymore.
There’s a little class warfare going on right now. And the Steelers and Chiefs have seven more weeks to defend their palaces.
Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via Twitter. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.
Categories: Sports | Steelers/NFL | Breakfast With Benz
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