Dermontti Dawson remembers the last time the Steelers went into a Christmas Eve game needing so much help to make the playoffs.
It was 1989. Not only did the Steelers need to win at Tampa Bay, several other results had to come out just right for them.
"We needed some help," said Dawson, the only player left from that team still wearing a Steelers uniform. "No one gave us a chance."
It snowed lightly in the Tampa, Fla., area the night before the game, proving that anything really could happen. And it did. The Steelers beat the Buccaneers, 31-22, and other games that day went just right for them.
They flew home that night to celebrate Christmas and to await the NFL regular-season finale on Monday Night Football between Minnesota and Cincinnati.
They needed a Vikings victory. A Cincinnati win would put the Bengals into the playoffs and eliminate the Steelers. Minnesota won, 29-21.
"Things," Dawson said, "kind of worked out."
They may be doing it again.
The Steelers (8-7) would have been eliminated from a playoff berth had the New York Jets won yesterday. But Detroit upset the Jets, as John Hall missed a 36-yard field-goal attempt to tie it with 18 seconds left.
That dropped the Jets to 9-6 and kept the Steelers hopes alive entering the final weekend of the season.
If the Jets lose at Baltimore on Sunday in a 1 p.m. game, and the Steelers win their Christmas Eve game at San Diego, which starts at 4:05 p.m., they would tie at 9-7.
Since Indianapolis beat Miami yesterday to go 9-6, the Steelers need help from the Vikings again, 11 years later. The Steelers need to beat San Diego, coupled with a Colts loss at home against Minnesota and a Jets loss. That would give the Steelers the third and final wildcard playoff berth. The Colts and Vikings kick off at 4:15 p.m..
In any tie among three teams or more with the same record, the ties are broken within the division first. The Colts lose that tie with the Jets. Jacksonville, even though it can't make the playoffs, would have eliminated the Steelers if both would have tied at 9-7. But the Jaguars' loss yesterday to the Bengals takes them out of the scenario because they can finish 8-8 at best.
The Steelers win a tiebreaker against the Jets because they beat the Jets, 20-3, on Oct. 8. Head-to-head competition is the first tie-breaker.
As any bettor can attest, a two-game parlay is difficult. But their odds are a lot less daunting today than they were going into the past weekend, when the Steelers needed to beat the Redskins and the Jets had to lose at home.
There will be plenty of scoreboard watching in San Diego since the Jets kick off three hours earlier in Baltimore. But if the Steelers learned one thing above all else this season it is this, as presented by Dawson:
"Really, the only thing we can do is take care of ourselves. Winning is important, and everything else that happens, happens."
The Chargers fell to 1-14, the worst record in football. But it appears they have not quit on the season. They led the Panthers in Carolina yesterday before losing, 30-22. The Steelers last played in San Diego in 1994. It was a meaningless game for them because their seeding in the playoffs was already set regardless of the outcome. They lost, 37-34, in a game also played on Christmas Eve. They won their previous game in San Diego, 23-6, in 1992.
They are 5-5 in San Diego since they first played the Chargers there in 1972.
"All we can do is get ready to play San Diego," said cornerback Dewayne Washington.
After a season that began with three consecutive losses, the Steelers have a chance to make the playoffs for the first time since 1997. It would be an enormous comeback for many reasons.
"We have to go win next week and see where the chips fall," said wide receiver Bobby Shaw, who led the Steelers with 71 yards on three receptions to help beat the Redskins, 24-3, Saturday in the last game ever played at Three Rivers Stadium. "Hope is not gone for us this season yet. It's still going for us, and we hope some things happen so that we can keep it going this year.
"You still have to go out there and play against a good team in San Diego. It definitely gives you a little more confidence to feel like you have a shot to play in the postseason. Hopefully, things break for you."
If they make it, the Steelers might not be a pushover as the sixth seed. As such, they would have to play every game on the road if they keep winning, so there will be no more games at Three Rivers Stadium even if they make the playoffs.
They have beaten some good teams along the way -- Oakland, at Baltimore, at the New York Jets, at Jacksonville. They have lost their games against Tennessee by three points at home and by two in Nashville.
"If we get into the post-season," Shaw said, "anything can happen. It's an 0-0 season after that. Hopefully, we can get in. We'll take care of business next week and see what happens."
That would be another lesson Dawson could relate to them from 1989. After squeezing into the playoffs, the Steelers went to Houston and stunned the Oilers in overtime on Rod Woodson's crushing forced fumble and recovery that set up Gary Anderson's winning 50-yard field goal.
They then went to Denver and had the favored Broncos on the ropes before a late John Elway drive beat them, 24-23. Had they won that game, they would have played in Cleveland for the AFC Championship.
"When you're in the playoffs," Dawson said, "anything can happen."
Steelers set for more Christmas Eve drama 
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