With a heated but ultimately one-sided victory over the Bengals, the Steelers delayed the Bengals' AFC North coronation a little longer. Their hopes to steal that crown are still alive, but it requires them winning out and finishing 11-5. For the purposes of this post, we will assume they are indeed able to do that. If they lose at any time, these scenarios go out the window and even their wild card eligibility would be in precarious condition.

Pittsburgh is currently in line to earn the #6 seed, but a Kansas City loss at any time would move them up to the #5 slot. That seems unlikely, with their remaining opponents a combined 13-26 (at BAL, vs CLE, vs OAK). They could leapfrog the Chiefs, however, by stealing the division from Cincinnati. Their division crown hopes lie on Cincinnati finishing 1-2 at best, as long as their eleventh win is not over Denver or Baltimore.

IF:

Cincinnati finishes 0-3 (10-6): Steelers would win (11-5).

Cincinnati finishes 1-2 (11-5), losing to SF and DEN, beating BAL: Bengals win with 5-1 division record (PIT 4-2).

Cincinnati finishes 1-2 (11-5), losing to SF and BAL, beating DEN: Bengals win with 9-3 AFC record (PIT 8-4).

Now, if Cincinnati loses to Denver and Baltimore, beating only San Francisco, things get interesting. Their head-to-head would be tied at 1-1, and they would be tied at 4-2 in the division. The next tiebreaker is actually not AFC record (that comes later) but common games.

Each team would be 9-3 against their 12 common opponents with 4 AFC North (both 3-1), 4 AFC West (both 3-1), and 4 NFC West (both 3-1). They must then go to the fourth tiebreaker: their AFC record. You guessed it, they would be again tied at 8-4.

So, they would finally end up at the strength of victory tiebreaker. Cincinnati currently has a +145 point strength of victory vs. Pittsburgh's +119. But keep in mind they currently have two more wins than Pittsburgh, so perhaps it's worth it to look at strength of victory per game at this point. 145 points over 10 wins puts the Bengals at +14.5 strength points per victory while the Steelers' 119 points over 8 wins puts them at +14.875 strength points per victory.

In this scenario the Bengals would only get one more win to add to that total while the Steelers would get three. That means that not only do the Steelers have to win out, they have to do so in very convincing fashion. If the Bengals are able to rout the 49ers without Andy Dalton, it would be extremely difficult for the Steelers to close the gap in the strength of victory tiebreaker.

If - and I hope you now realize just how big an 'if' that still is - Pittsburgh is able to steal the division from Cincinnati, they would likely be locked into the #3 seed. They would hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over Denver, but keep in mind this scenario requires Denver beating Cincinnati. That would make them 11-4 going into their week 17 game at home vs. San Diego. I suppose stranger things have happened, but they'd likely clinch the #2 seed at 12-4.

While we're here, I guess I'll point out that the Steelers hopes of the #1 seed are still mathematically alive, however infinitesimal they might be.

This would require the Patriots, Broncos, and Steelers finishing in a three-way tie at 11-5 (Pats are currently 11-2, so yeah this will not happen). Without getting into specifics, we would again be looking at a strength of victory tiebreaker, and we'd need to outscore our remaining opponents by at least 44 points.

Brace yourselves, football fans. Winter is coming...