During a bizarre season in which they repeatedly worked on short weeks, the Pittsburgh Steelers will wait longer than anyone to open their postseason.
The Steelers’ rematch with the Cleveland Browns will be seven days after the regular season-closing meeting between the longtime rivals, and it will kick off in primetime. NBC will broadcast the wild-card round playoff game at 8:15 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 10.
As AFC North champions, the Steelers (12-4) are the No. 3 seed in the conference’s playoff bracket. Making the playoffs for the first time since 2002, the Browns (11-5) earned the No. 6 seed after a 24-22 win home against the Steelers on Sunday.
But the Steelers sat quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and three other prominent starters, and this meeting will be at Heinz Field.
This is the 15th occasion teams that met in the final week of the regular season played again a week later in the playoffs. The winner of the regular-season meeting is 6-8 in the rematch.
The Browns’ past two playoff games — in the 2002 wild-card round and 1994 divisional round — were losses at the Steelers.
The AFC’s other playoff games are the No. 7 Indianapolis Colts at the No. 2 Buffalo Bills (1:05 p.m. Saturday) and the No. 5 Baltimore Ravens at the No. 4 Tennessee Titans (1:05 p.m. Sunday).
If the Steelers and Bills win, they will face each other in Buffalo in the divisional round the following week. If the Bills lose and the Steelers win, the Steelers will host the Ravens-Titans winner.
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