How does the great Dave Bryan say it on The Terrible Podcast? “Doom… despair… and agony.” I haven’t yet listened to the latest edition of the podcast, but I would be willing to wager that remark was made after witnessing what we saw yesterday from the Pittsburgh Steelers in a 30-7 beatdown loss at home to the San Francisco 49ers.
The Steelers were outplayed by San Francisco in every way on Sunday, getting gashed on the ground and through the air on defense while failing to show the same levels of success on offense that we had become accustomed to after a stellar showing in the preseason. Many have criticized the Steelers and their performance Sunday, calling them out for a lack of identity on offense and asking if what we saw in the preseason was fool’s gold. However, NFL insider Ian Rapoport mentioned on a segment on The Insiders, which aired on NFL Network, that a certain Steelers fan gave him confidence that HC Mike Tomlin will get this ship turned around.
“I got a text from my favorite Steelers fan, Brett Michaels from Poison, great group,” Rapoport said on NFL Network. “He’s still doing it, still touring around the country, texting me from his jet, and he is encouraged by Mike Tomlin’s words post-game and was essentially saying you either have a choice of being a victim or being victorious. To me, that kind of encapsulates what’s going on here for the Steelers. You can either be like, ‘All right, we’re bad, life is bad.’ Or you can be like, ‘Here’s our challenge. Let’s see how we respond.’ I will trust the vibes of my favorite Poison lead singer and I think the Steelers are gonna be fine.”
Tomlin said after the game that Pittsburgh got kicked in the teeth against the 49ers, stressing that the team needs to play better and that the coaching staff needs to coach better to have better results. Tomlin mentioned that the Steelers must get back to the drawing board and better prepare for their next opponent than what they showed against the 49ers. Starting 0-1 on a blowout loss is never the way you want to start a season full of excitement and anticipation like the Steelers did coming into 2023. However, just because they got humbled Week One doesn’t mean that they need to throw the towel in on the season altogether.
Tomlin has managed to rally the troops and get his team turned around in the past. Pittsburgh was 2-6 heading into the bye week last year, playing half a season with no T.J. Watt while undergoing a change at quarterback. However, Tomlin put an emphasis on putting their heads down and working together to steer the ship back to relevance when the Steelers were staring at a top-five draft pick at the midway point last season.
You can wallow in your failures, or you can choose to learn from them and become better because of them. That’s who Tomlin has been as a head coach in the NFL since he was hired back in 2007, never saying die and keeping his teams competitive, no matter what the circumstances. Yesterday was a gut check for Tomlin and the rest of the team, but they can look at it the same way Michaels referenced to Rapoport. The Steelers can choose to be the victim after this hard loss, or they can approach it with the mindset of the victor who wins in the end.
