National Football League roundup: Steelers, Texans clinch playoff spots

“I hate it for them and obviously hate it for us”.

After a stunning loss last week in Baltimore, the Steelers (10-6) were in a predicament.

“We’ve had our ups and downs, but that’s a resilient group and equally important is that it’s a tight group and they stayed together”, coach Mike Tomlin said.

Ben Roethlisberger threw for 349 yards, 187 to the sensational Antonio Brown, who had 13 catches and a TD. Pittsburgh certainly isn’t entering the postseason on a roll, but the 0-0 cliche might never be more apt than this year when there just aren’t any teams that can’t be beaten, leaving the Steelers one loss from elimination and four wins from a seventh Super Bowl title. They could, however, very well be the team that none of the others want to face when the games matter the most.

The Buffalo Bills will get to chow down on sandwiches from Pittsburgh’s famous Primanti Brothers today, a thank you for helping the Steelers qualify for the playoffs. We were in position previous year, made the playoffs and lost in the first round. The Steelers haven’t won a playoff game since the 2010 AFC championship.

“We have the quarterback who has been there before”, right tackle Marcus Gilbert said.

New England will host the early game on Saturday, Jan. 16, with Denver hosting the lowest remaining AFC seed in the late game on Sunday, Jan. 17. They won six of their past eight games. Defensive end Stephon Tuitt had a pair of sacks.

Sure, much like a year ago, when Pittsburgh prepared for its wild card game knowing Le’Veon Bell was going to miss it with a hyper-extended knee, the days leading up to the date with the Bengals will surely be dominated by news of the health of running back DeAngelo Williams, who left the regular season finale with an ankle injury and didn’t return.

And at the end of the day, fans did get everything they had been hoping for, at least for this week. Tomlin said Williams will be evaluated, and would not rule him out of the postseason.

SEARCH STARTED: With help from a consulting firm, Haslam intends to first hire his new coach and then find a GM.

The victory gave Detroit a two-game sweep of Chicago for the third consecutive year and boosted coach Jim Caldwell’s chances of keeping his job as the Lions went 6-2 the second half of the season after starting 1-7.

Haslam also promoted Sashi Brown, formerly executive vice president/general counsel, as his director of football operations with control over the 53-man roster. The first is holy guacamole, he tore it up for 1,834 yards, finishing only 37 yards behind Atlanta’s Julio Jones for the season lead and also in 4 place all time (Jones’ 1,871 yards was 2 all-time to Calvin Johnson’s 1,964 in 2012).

WHERE’S JOHNNY?: The Browns couldn’t confirm a report that quarterback Johnny Manziel was in Las Vegas.

Brown will be 28 years old next season and has the opportunity to become the fourth National Football League player to eclipse 10,000 receiving yards before reaching 30 years old. Manziel has shown some progress in his two seasons, but continues to be a distraction.

Said Foster: “It’s happiness for us”.