After a rollercoaster regular season that went down to the final play of Week 18, the Pittsburgh Steelers are postseason-bound.
The Steelers are heading to the playoffs for the third straight year after edging the Baltimore Ravens 26-24 on Sunday Night Football, clinching the AFC North for the first time since 2020. As the AFC’s No. 4 seed, they’ll host the No. 5 seed Houston Texans at Acisure Stadium on Monday in the final game of the Wild Card Round.
Pittsburgh will be seeking its first postseason win in nine years. While the Steelers have lost six straight playoff games, they do have one key trend in their favor.
Pittsburgh has won 23 straight home games on Monday night. The franchise hasn’t lost a home game on Monday night since Oct. 14, 1991, before many of the team’s players were even born.
That streak will be tested by the Texans, who won two more games than the Steelers during the regular season and finished with a better point differential. Houston has one of the league’s best defenses, allowing the fewest yards and second-fewest points in the NFL this season.
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The Texans will be a tough matchup for Pittsburgh, which ranked 15th in scoring but 25th in offensive yardage this season. The Steelers will get a boost with DK Metcalf coming back from his two-game suspension, but Aaron Rodgers will have his hands full with Houston’s ferocious defense.
One of Pittsburgh’s lengthy streaks will end on Monday. Either the Steelers will earn their first postseason win in nearly a decade, or they’ll suffer their first Monday home loss in 35 years.
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Featured image via Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images