Failing to get the help they needed Sunday to secure a higher playoff seed, the Pittsburgh Steelers will make another trip to Baltimore to kick off the postseason.
The Steelers (10-7), who take a four-game losing streak into the playoffs, will be the No. 6 seed in the AFC. That earns them a road game against the No. 3-seeded Baltimore Ravens (12-5), the AFC North champion.
The date and time of the wild-card game were to be determined later Sunday night.
The Ravens ended the season on a four-game winning streak, with one of those victories coming against the Steelers, 34-17, on Dec. 21 at M&T Bank Stadium. Behind Lamar Jackson, a candidate to win his third most valuable player award, the Ravens have outscored their opponents 135-43 the past four weeks.
The Ravens also have lost just once since the Steelers beat them, 18-16, on Nov. 17 at Acrisure Stadium.
“Obviously, the Ravens are a good football team,” quarterback Russell Wilson said. “We battled back and forth with those guys. We feel like if we just do right and look forward to the next moment, that’s got to be the only thing that matters and the thing we answer to. And then I think most importantly we’ve got to have amnesia going into this and just win the next play. Just win the next play, win the next game. We got to have the best week we can possibly have this week.”
After losing to the Cincinnati Bengals, 19-17, on Saturday night, the Steelers needed a victory by the Las Vegas Raiders against the Los Angeles Chargers to avoid a trip to Baltimore. But the Chargers rallied from an early deficit to win their third game in a row, 34-20.
The Steelers haven’t won a playoff game since the 2016 postseason and will enter as a wild-card team for the third consecutive time.
“Nobody is going to make it easy for us, but I like us versus anybody,” said defensive captain Cameron Heyward, the longest tenured Steelers player. “You can say I’m blowing smoke, but I do. I like the group.”
In their playoff history, the Steelers hold a 3-1 record against the Ravens, although all four games were played in Pittsburgh. The Steelers played a playoff game in Baltimore in 1976 against the Colts.