The Steelers will make a little NFL history this weekend.
When they take the field to face the Ravens, it will be their first game against an AFC North opponent this season. No other team has ever played its first divisional game this late in a season and the timing means they will play six of their final eight games against divisional foes.
The scheduling quirk came up during head coach Mike Tomlin’s press conference on Tuesday, but he didn’t have much interest in the topic.
“I don’t care,” Tomlin said, via the team’s website. “I’ll play them whenever they schedule us. We’ve got no control over the schedule. Our goal is to beat everybody, but specifically week to week, we get singly focused on this week’s opponent, and so I’d be making it up if I told you I cared about the schedule of when we face people. I don’t.”
While Tomlin might not care about the scheduling, the wait to play this game makes it all the more valuable to both teams. The winner will take the inside track to first place in the division at a point where such things really start to matter.
