PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Steelers are about to enter a stretch that will consist of three games in an 11-day span where all three teams are above .500. First is against the second-best team in the NFC, the Philadelphia Eagles. The next is against the AFC North’s second seed, Baltimore Ravens. And the last comes on Christmas Day, when the AFC-leading Kansas City Chiefs come to town.

It’s not going to be easy, but the Steelers aren’t looking at it as an excuse. Right now, they’re 10-3 and sit in first place in the division. If they keep winning, they have a shot to claim an even higher seed in the AFC by the playoffs. And they aren’t ready to let a bad stretch stop that.

“We know it now. We’ve been knowing it for the last couple weeks. But shoot, we’ve got to line up and play,” safety DeShon Elliott said about the stretch. “It’s just going to show us how good we can be. No excuses obviously.”

That being said, Elliott didn’t hold back on how he feels the NFL feels about the Steelers.

“The penalties and the flags that happened today, I feel like the league kinda hates us already, man,” Elliott continued. “So, it’s all right. We’re going go out here, we’re going to play those games, we’re going to work our butts off and hopefully go out and be 3-0.”

Pittsburgh was the 11th-highest penalized team in the NFL coming into Week 14. Elliott himself was victim of a touchdown pass that probably should have been called for offensive pass interference against the Cleveland Browns. Meanwhile, Pittsburgh was flagged six times in the game.

The team also has players like George Pickens, who received three fines from last week alone.

Still, the Steelers want to win and let their work do the talking. So whether the NFL has a vendetta against them or not, they’re focused on Week 15.

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