But if all three teams win their remaining games, the Steelers will vault over the Jets in the tiebreaker procedures. (Pittsburgh’s final three games are against other A.F.C. teams, and intra-conference games are an important part of N.F.L. tiebreakers; see below for the details.) So in some ways, it’s meaningless to say that the Steelers would trail the Jets if the season ended today. The season won’t end today.

The second reason is that the Jets still face a fairly tough remaining schedule, making it unlikely they will win all three of their final games. In two weeks, they host the Patriots (11-2). In the season’s final week, the Jets travel to Buffalo and face their former coach, Rex Ryan, who no doubt would take solace from knocking them out of the playoffs. If Pittsburgh loses to Denver but then wins its other two remaining games, the Jets need to lose only once to let the Steelers in the playoffs.

Bottom line: Forget about those playoff-picture graphics that aired on television this past weekend. The Steelers, unlike the Jets, control their chances. And even a loss to Denver leaves them with a plausible path to the playoffs. If the Steelers can beat Denver — in Pittsburgh, which helps — they will need only to beat the lowly Ravens and Browns to guarantee a wild-card spot.



Tiebreaker details: The first wild-card tiebreaker is head-to-head games, but the Steelers and Jets do not play each other this year. The second tiebreaker is intra-conference record, and the Jets are currently 6-4 against other A.F.C. teams while the Steelers are 5-4. But if both teams win their remaining games, they will end the season 8-4 against A.F.C. teams. The third tiebreaker — record against common opponents — would then come into play.

The Steelers would be 4-1 in the two teams’ common games (beating the Browns twice and the Raiders and the Colts, while losing to the Patriots), while the Jets would be 3-2 (beating the Browns and Colts, losing to the Raiders and splitting with the Patriots in this scenario). As a result, the 11-5 Steelers would rank ahead of the 11-5 Jets. The same would be the case if both teams ended 10-6 — so long as the Steelers beat the Browns. That game — in Cleveland, on the final day of the regular season — actually looks like a more important game for the Steelers than this Sunday’s higher-profile game against the Broncos.