Steelers Get Surprising Split In Week 10 Power Rankings Before Bengals Showdown

The Pittsburgh Steelers are 6-2, on a four-game winning streak and tied for first place in the AFC North. That should make them easy to rank, but the national media can't seem to agree on where they belong. This week's power rankings have the Steelers anywhere from seventh to 13th, a split that says a lot about how the rest of the league views this team. With a first-place showdown against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday Night Football, that debate may not last much longer.

The most bullish ranking came from Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio, who moved the Steelers up from No. 8 to No. 7 even though they were on their bye. He kept his reasoning short and focused on Sunday.

"Completing the sweep of the Bengals will be critical to winning the division," Florio wrote.

Florio put Cincinnati right behind Pittsburgh at No. 8, up from No. 11. The Buffalo Bills, Jacksonville Jaguars, San Francisco 49ers, Denver Broncos and Chicago Bears made up his top five.

ESPN was far less impressed. Its NFL Nation panel kept the Steelers at No. 13, six spots behind the No. 7 Bengals. Steelers reporter Brooke Pryor picked Sunday's trip to Cincinnati as the team's most important game of the second half.

"With two games against the ailing Ravens also on the Steelers' schedule, a win against the Bengals would go a long way to securing the division title -- and earning a top-four playoff seed."

Steelers Can Settle The Debate In Cincinnati

The rest of the national rankings fell between those two extremes. The Athletic and USA Today both had Pittsburgh at No. 13, The Sporting News had them at No. 8 and Bleacher Report had them at No. 10, according to a roundup from SportsNet Pittsburgh. The Athletic also gave the Steelers a B+ midseason grade, pointing to an improving defense.

Even the outlets that kept Pittsburgh outside the top 10 had good things to say. USA Today's Nate Davis pointed to the team's "four-game winning streak and increasingly stingy defense." The Sporting News' Vinnie Iyer noted that Aaron Rodgers is on pace for more than 27 touchdown passes in what he has said is his final season. And Bleacher Report's Brent Sobleski said Sunday's game in Cincinnati could go a long way toward deciding the AFC North.

Almost every ranking had the same theme: it was less about what the Steelers have done and more about what comes next. The Bengals climbed three spots in both the ESPN and Pro Football Talk rankings, and ESPN now has Cincinnati well ahead of Pittsburgh despite the Steelers' Week 3 win over them. The Jaguars, ranked No. 3 by ESPN, also circled their Week 14 meeting with Pittsburgh as their biggest game of the second half because of what it could mean for AFC playoff seeding.

So why the gap? The teams ranked ahead of the Steelers by the lower outlets mostly have flashier offenses. Pittsburgh's passing game has been inconsistent, and DK Metcalf's quiet first half is a big reason. SteelerNation covered how Head Coach Mike McCarthy took the blame for Metcalf's slow start as the play-caller.

What the Steelers have done well is win in the trenches. Jaylen Warren has rushed for 704 yards at 5.9 yards per carry, and a defense led by TJ Watt has carried the team through its four-game winning streak. That style rarely gets top billing in power rankings, but it has worked.

Cincinnati is the opposite. Joe Burrow is playing at an MVP level, and the Bengals have won with offense. Pittsburgh won the first meeting 30-27 in Week 3, and SteelerNation broke down what the rematch could mean for the season.

That is why Sunday night matters so much for how the Steelers are viewed. A road win would give them a season sweep, the head-to-head tiebreaker over Cincinnati and a strong case for the top 10 everywhere. A loss would hand the Bengals the division lead and give the doubters more reason to keep Pittsburgh in the middle of the pack.

For now, the split says as much about style as about results. The Steelers have the same record as the Bengals and the head-to-head win. On Sunday night, they get the chance to take the argument out of the experts' hands.

This story was produced with the help of AI and reviewed by SteelerNation editors.

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