Week 18 Thoughts and Synopsis

Yesterday easily took five years off my lifespan. In typical Steeler fashion, we were losing for most of the game and seemed to only wake up midway through the fourth quarter. It ended up being just in time, as the Steelers beat the Ravens 16-13 in OT.

Yesterday at this time, the Steelers had a 9% chance of making it to the playoffs. Three things had to happen: The Steelers had to beat the Ravens, the Chargers vs. Raiders game had to not end in a tie and the 2-14 Jaguars had to beat the 9-7 Colts. In a plot twist that only the Steelers Gods could devise, the Jaguars blew out the Colts, 26-11. For a while yesterday it appeared as though the Jaguars were going to win only to have the Steelers blow it to the Ravens.

I won't talk too much about the actual game because it was abysmal. We could barely get it together to beat the Ravens without star QB Lamar Jackson (out with an ankle injury). I hate to say it, and I hope I'm wrong, but this team isn't getting far in the playoffs. But hey, at least we made it!

I foolishly thought I could go to bed last night with the Chargers beating the Raiders 20-14. I figured I had had enough of football drama for the next week and could peacefully go to bed and everything would be fine. I was wrong. I got that dreaded "are you watching this game??" text at 11:47 pm, at the exact same time that I got a twitter notification asking how my heartrate was.

Shout out to my friends Nikki and Patrick for looking out for me, if you wanna call it that. ;)

Sure enough, the Raiders and Chargers were going into OT. And just like that, I watched my decent night of sleep float out the window. Here's the thing. If the Raiders and Chargers tied, they would both make it to the playoffs. I was half convinced that they would half-ass the OT and allow both teams to make it into the playoffs. Luckily for the Steelers, that didn't happen.

Amid shouts of the league being rigged the game came down to the last play. With three seconds left the Raiders kicker, Daniel Carlson, kicked a 47 yard field goal to send his team to the playoffs. As a big fan of Derek Carr, I'm excited for the Raiders and if the Steelers can't win it all (they can't) I want to see the Raiders win it.

This tweet by Mina Kimes perfectly sums up how we all felt about the tie last night:

I do want to give a quick shoutout to the real hero (yet again) of the Steelers game yesterday, Chris Boswell. Without Boz making fourth quarter or OT field goals the Steelers record this year would have been 6-10-1. So thank you Boz for giving us a winning season.

Two other weird stories from this week:

At the end of the Eagles vs. Washington Football Team's game last Sunday, some fans fell onto the field after a piece of the railing between their seats and the tunnel fell. According to some people who were involved, Eagles QB Jalen Hurts provided more assistance than medical staff on the field.

What made me laugh the hardest this week was the poor poor Giants, who for some unfathomable reason chose to run a QB sneak on 3rd and 9 yesterday. I honestly thought they got confused and thought they were a yard from the first down or something but no, apparently they were just trying to give themselves more room to punt? Idk man.

Pittsburgh is Playoff Bound Yinz!