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PITTSBURGH -- The New York Jets did not do the Pittsburgh Steelers any favors Monday night when their upset bid fell short at MetLife Stadium.  The Jets lost 16-13 to the Miami Dolphins despite dominating the first half of the game. The result dropped the Steelers near the bottom of a pack of 7-5 teams in the AFC.
The Steelers are currently fifth among the six AFC playoff teams with a 7-5 record and the No. 10 team overall based on tiebreakers. The good news for the Steelers is there are four games left in the season, with two of those against the AFC North-leading Cincinnati Bengals. The bad news for the Steelers is they have left themselves little margin for error because they have not taken advantage of the worst division in the NFL. The Steelers are only 1-2 against the NFC South, which does not have a team with a winning record. The rest of the teams in the AFC North are a combined 10-0-1 against the NFC South. Yikes. Baltimore has already swept that division, and Cleveland is 3-0 against the NFC South. Cincinnati, meanwhile, went 3-0-1 against the division with its tie coming against the Carolina Panthers. What is even worse for the Steelers as far as not taking advantage of that portion of their schedule is that both of their home losses this season have come against NFC South teams. They couldn’t protect a seven-point fourth-quarter lead against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in late September and lost 27-24. They fell behind the New Orleans Saints by 19 points on Sunday before two late touchdowns made the score artificially close in a 35-32 loss that dropped them to 7-5. If the Steelers end up missing the playoffs by one game -- and they have to win three of their last four to put themselves in position to advance past the regular season for the first time since 2011 -- they will have only themselves to blame for not feasting on the teams that their AFC North rivals used to fatten up their respective records.
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