As Ravens await, Steelers eyeing bigger prize than running the table on 16-0 season

They already have achieved the best start in franchise history. They are the first NFL team in five years to win their first 10 games.

The Pittsburgh Steelers, though, have no interest in matching the 1972 Miami Dolphins as the only team to complete a perfect season.

Sure, they want to equal those Dolphins with a Super Bowl victory at the end of the journey, lest they end up like the 2007 New England Patriots. They just don’t feel the need to be undefeated in order to accomplish it.

As quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has said on at least two occasions this year: “We’re not chasing perfection in terms of 16-0. We’re chasing Lombardis.”

Still, as the victory total increases, the Steelers will be dogged with as many questions about a perfect season as they will about bringing the franchise its seventh Lombardi Trophy.

The next test comes Sunday afternoon in a divisional showdown against the Baltimore Ravens, a rematch of the Steelers’ 28-24 victory Nov. 1 that tied the 1978 team’s 7-0 start as the longest in franchise history. Originally scheduled for Thursday night, the game was postponed Wednesday by the NFL because of a series of positive covid-19 tests in the Ravens organization.

A victory would make the Steelers the 11th team since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger to go 11-0. As it is, they are one of 17 teams over the past 51 years to open with 10 consecutive victories and the first since New England and Carolina did it in 2015.

Six of those 11-0 teams eventually won the Super Bowl, starting with the ’72 Dolphins and ending with the 2009 New Orleans Saints, who entered the postseason 13-3.

And that, ultimately, is what matters to the Steelers: winning the final game of the season in February, not the record that accompanies that accomplishment.

“You win a Super Bowl. That’s the only way you can pull this off,” tight end Eric Ebron said. “If, at the end of the day, we don’t win a Super Bowl, then going 10-0 is so pointless.”

Which is why the Steelers are focusing on playing the Ravens and not the big picture.

“We don’t really talk about an undefeated season at all,” defensive end Stephon Tuitt said. “We literally treat every week like it’s a new week. We always keep preaching the type of game we are in. This is a five-star matchup again, and we have to prepare for that.”

Even with a victory against the Ravens, the Steelers can’t clinch the AFC North title, and it’s unlikely they will seal a playoff berth after the weekend’s games are complete.

“We’re not satisfied with where we are,” defensive captain Cameron Heyward said. “I don’t think we’ve clinched anything yet. We have big goals in mind. For us to take our foot off the pedal would be useless.”

The one-week-at-a-time approach is one coach Mike Tomlin has expressed since this season began. Heck, he has taken that viewpoint since replacing Bill Cowher in 2007.

“We have challenges this week as it pertains to playing the Ravens,” Tomlin said. “We just need to go 1-0 this week. We don’t bear any burden, if you will, or worry about any cumulative records or what lies ahead. … We are singularly and professionally focused, and that’s where we are.”

So while the Steelers aren’t content with looking ahead or talking about 16-0, it is worth discussing the difficulty in running the table during the regular season. It has happened only twice: by the ’72 Dolphins and the ’07 Patriots, who famously were upset by the New York Giants in the Super Bowl.

Consider, until this season, the Steelers never had won more than seven games in a row to start a season. They would have to do it twice — plus win an additional two games — to reach 16-0.

Also consider the second-longest winning streak in the NFL this season — at any point of the year — is the Saints’ current seven-gamer. And for the Steelers to go 16-0, they would have to beat teams with a combined record of 32-27-1. That includes games against 7-3 Indianapolis, 7-3 Cleveland and at 7-3 Buffalo — provided the Steelers get past the Ravens, of course.

“We’ve already made history, so what’s the pressure?” Ebron said. “I’d already rather have our loss come now than then. We aren’t tripping. If we lose a game and we’re still winning … we’re not too concerned. That’s why we don’t talk about it. We don’t care that we are 10-0. We have one purpose, bro. If we don’t ultimately fulfill that purpose, then we’ve failed.”