CLEVELAND — It turns out the NFL schedule makers knew what they were doing in May when they matched the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens in the Week 18 regular season finale.
After an unlikely turn of events in an 18-hour span, that game to open the new year went from being irrelevant to determining the winner of the AFC North title.
A day after the Ravens kept their season alive with a victory at Green Bay — while playing without star quarterback Lamar Jackson — the Steelers stumbled to a 13-6 loss Sunday to the three-win Cleveland Browns at Huntington Bank Field.
Instead of clinching the division title and having a week to regroup ahead of the postseason, the Steelers (9-7) had their three-game winning streak snapped and must defeat the Ravens (8-8) at Acrisure Stadium to win their first division title since 2020. A day and time for the game has yet to be announced.
It is just the second winner-take-all game for the division title since the AFC North was formed in 2002. The other occurred in 2014 when the Steelers defeated the Cincinnati Bengals, 27-17.
“We’ve been here before,” coach Mike Tomlin said after the Steelers lost their fourth consecutive game to the Browns in Cleveland. “We’ve certainly got a big week ahead of us.”
The winner of the Steelers-Ravens game will earn the No. 4 seed in the AFC and a game in the wild-card round of the playoffs. The Ravens would advance instead of the Steelers if both teams finish with 9-8 records because of their superior record within division play. The Ravens would be 4-2 in the North compared with 3-3 for the Steelers.
Entering the weekend with a 93% chance of winning the division, according to ESPN, the Steelers’ chances now sit at 46%. Oddsmakers have installed the Ravens as three-point favorites.
“I don’t think it’s pressure,” said linebacker Patrick Queen, who spent his first four seasons with Baltimore before joining the Steelers in 2024. “It’s do you want to keep playing or not? Do you want to try to get to the Super Bowl or not?”
The Ravens have won the division title the past two seasons and can become the first team to win it three times in a row. The Ravens leapfrogged the Steelers in December a year ago on their way to the division crown and ended their season in the wild-card round of the playoffs.
“The fan bases, the NFL world, everybody would love that,” Queen said about a winner-take-all game in Week 18. “These are two hard-nosed football teams that love to compete. It’s going to be a good game. It’s going to be fireworks. It’s what everybody wants.”
The preseason favorite, Baltimore got off to a 1-5 start but rallied behind five consecutive victories. When the teams met Dec. 7 at M&T Bank Stadium, the Steelers handed the Ravens a 27-22 defeat and embarked on a three-game winning streak.
With their season on the line Saturday night at Lambeau Field, the Ravens pulled off a 41-24 victory against the Packers behind backup quarterback Tyler Huntley and star running back Derrick Henry, who rushed for 216 yards and four touchdowns.
“We got our work cut out for us,” defensive captain Cameron Heyward said. “I know that monster over there went for big yardage this week.”
The Ravens also rushed for 217 yards in the first encounter with the Steelers, although Henry was held to a modest 94 on 25 carries and did not score a touchdown.