PITTSBURGH — "You know how it is. If my aunt had male parts, she'd be my uncle."

An all-time absolutely bonkers Mike Tomlin quote to sum up an all-time absolutely bonkers Steelers game.

And the Baltimore Ravens were on the other end of it Sunday night at Acrisure Stadium. Of course they were.

The roar that popped from the Steelers fans in the north end zone of Acrisure Stadium was a couple beats ahead of those around them and millions watching around the world.

They had the straight-on view of this whole thing being thrown for a loop one more time in the 2025 regular season, and for a first time in the 2026 calendar year.

Steelers 26, Ravens 24 is how it's entered into the record books, but those four digits contain so many ups and downs that it's hard to fathom. If you can wrap your head around that end-of-game sequence, perhaps you can make sense of that new Tomlin-ism.

"Tonight was arguably the best atmosphere I've been a part of here in Pittsburgh," said outside linebacker T.J. Watt.

Chaos was the word used most by 42-year-old quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who has seen more of these moments than any of his teammates. There was chaos on the field, chaos in his helmet when his speaker didn't work and eventually the best kind of chaos in a celebratory locker room that sent the smell of victory wafting down the hallway to the press conference podium.

"Cigar smoke everywhere, man," Watt said. "I was trying to get out of there as quick as possible."

Escaping was the name of the game, but you can't necessarily fall back on it as a fluky win for the Steelers. Sure, Ravens rookie kicker Tyler Loop had made 90.6% of his field goals on the season, with all three of those misses coming from beyond 50 yards, only to miss from 44 when he had a chance to send the Steelers on vacation.

But Chris Boswell is even more accurate than that when it comes to extra points, and he left one drifting into the North Shore air that would have given the Steelers a three-point lead and changed the complexion of that bizarre final sequence.

"Just a crazy game," said Cam Heyward, the longest-tenured member of this roster and a homegrown mainstay for the Steelers. "You never fall asleep early during Baltimore-Pittsburgh games."

Heyward summed up Tomlin's preparation of the team as stirring the pot, stoking the fire and poking the bear. But the defense's want-to wasn't an issue. Schematics, missed assignments and finishing plays were the problems that nearly did them in.

The Steelers checked off their annual non-losing season a couple weeks ago like brushing their teeth at the end of a mundane day. Now they've punched their playoff ticket as the bare minimum for how this season can show that they have taken the next step as a franchise.

Now the hardest work begins. Sunday was a de-facto playoff game, but next Monday against the red-hot Houston Texans will be the real thing. And the Steelers haven't gotten over that hump of grabbing a postseason win in eight seasons. Heyward referred to the opportunity as "playing with house money" but he's used that term before.

"I think it's just momentum, understanding that we can deliver when it gets thick," Watt said of how one wide-right kick and the lead-up to it can be a catalyst for them. "Just a lot of belief, man. Truly a lot of belief."

Plenty of the same fans who cheered that fateful missed field goal would just like the cards to fall their way one of these winters. If the Texans come here and keep the Steelers on their same tired treadmill run, the joy of sweeping the Ravens will be diminished.

Maybe when Antonio Brown petulantly walked out on the team seven years ago he put a curse on them. Not that the Steelers will never win again, but that they'll be damned to NFL purgatory for all eternity.

Or maybe they can seize upon the vibes from what turned out to be an unbelievable upset of the Ravens, who are left to pick up the pieces and do their own soul-searching in an offseason that arrived ahead of schedule. That's the razor's edge between the Steelers' season coming to an abrupt end and the reality of having the whole tournament in front of them, all goals attainable — on paper at least.

"I'm not asking questions," Heyward said with a grin. "The good lord made a good decision tonight. I am thankful. And we keep moving on."

And we now know how Tomlin feels about what-ifs and alternate universes. He doesn't have much time for those. That's what he was touching on when he dropped that quip that sounds like something you'd hear from a great aunt sitting around the table at a summer cookout.

Or your uncle.

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