Rest assured, Pittsburgh Steelers fans, last week’s loss to the Baltimore Ravens was not the end of the season.

Take a deep breath. Relax. That wasn’t so bad.

Once again, it did not take the Ravens long to disappoint their fans.

Each time the team looks to have a stranglehold — or at the very least a firm control of the AFC North Division — the team finds a way to backslide.

It was apparent after the Week 1 dismantling of the Pittsburgh Steelers 35-7 that the Ravens were touted as the team to beat in the AFC.

They had the upper hand and the Steelers were said to be too old.

Baltimore, however, failed to carry that momentum into the next week and dropped a 26-13 road decision to the Tennessee Titans.

Baltimore did pull off three consecutive wins — against the St. Louis Rams, New York Jets and Houston Texans — before an inexplicable 12-7 Monday Night Football loss to Jacksonville on Oct. 24.

The following week, Baltimore fell behind Arizona by three touchdowns in the first half before roaring back to win.

That set up the Nov. 6 game against the Steelers. The Steelers had rebounded with six wins in seven games after the Baltimore loss and first place was riding on the game’s outcome.

The Steelers had the lead late before Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco engineered a 92-yard scoring drive, the winning play with 8 seconds remaining in a 23-20 triumph.

Baltimore seemingly had it made. The Ravens were being dubbed again as the best team in the AFC — despite their recent offensive woes.

They had defeated Pittsburgh twice, were 2-0 in the division and had a half-game lead on their biggest rival.

Again, Baltimore had a chance to strengthen its season with a road win at Seattle this past Sunday.

With the Steelers in a bye this upcoming week, a Week 11 win against Cincinnati would bolster the Ravens.

Instead, the Ravens went to the Pacific Northwest and failed. Miserably.

The Steelers, who had fallen to third place in the AFC North with a 6-3 record, while Baltimore and Cincinnati were atop at 6-2 — with the Bengals actually at the No. 1 seed in the AFC at that point.

Baltimore lost — apparently focusing all its energies on beating Pittsburgh, then dropping the ball against other non-Pittsburgh opponents.

The Steelers, on the other hand, defeated the host Bengals 24-17, which moved Pittsburgh back into first place — with the bye finally coming to Pittsburgh.

A win by Baltimore against the Bengals would have the Ravens and Steelers at 7-3 with Baltimore having the tiebreaker over Pittsburgh.

Still, the Ravens have shown they can slip up a bit, especially offensively. The pressure is on the Ravens this year not to lose it.

For Steeler fans, at the very least, it should be fun to watch them try.

Sam Tallarico is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle.